the dark side
by magic-heart-0
Summary: darkness was the ally. they would use it to accomplish anything for their village, kill anyone, steal anything. there was no stopping them. when they were on the dark side.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Naruto obviously.

Chapter 1: the beginning of the road

"We want him." the Hokage blinked in surprise at the request sitting on his desk, it was the most informal recruitment letter of recommendation he had ever seen. It was on a napkin and it said "we want Naruto Uzumaki" proudly written big and bold. there were tears in places where the pen had caught on the napkin. He had only seen this once before, six years ago when the ANBU had wanted Itachi Uchiha for their own, then it had been on an actual official form with proper signatures, and he had not one but all eight of the team leaders, and their sixteen different squad leaders in his office begging. this time it was one, she probably drew the short end of the stick he realized, but he wasn't going to let that get to him.

"what in the actual fuck makes you think that I am going to allow you to recruit a six-year-old into the ANBU. not six-year-old genin, or a six-year-old chunin, but a six-year-old failing academy student!" the window behind him had shattered and blew out and he had risen like an angry god appearing larger than life and ready to kill.

"Lord Hokage we believe with proper management and the right training we could have potentially the best shinobi the world has ever seen. He has shown numerous times with his pranks and afterwards his escapes that he has the patients and skill for it when he outran numerous chunin and one or two jonin that managed to get into the chases, despite being the lowest of his class we have ruled it out to him being a gifted child who is bored what he does pick up he picks up fast and what he doesn't pay attention to are mostly classes he knows or in his mind are pointless." the ANBU had pulled out a manila folder and handed it to him.

Hiruzen looked over the dossier taking note at how well put together this was, the napkin now that he thought about it was probably for shock value as he saw probably hundreds of letters a day just none on a napkin. Reading through it he could see that while it lacked in some areas it deserved some thought now that his initial anger had been shattered by his ANBU's calm behavior. He leaned back in his chair reaching for his pipe while he did "what would the plan be?"

The agent in front of him looked a little too eager and probably didn't expect to get this far "we have a two-year training program prepped with a focus of building his body into prime shape along with chakra enhancement techniques and beginning lessons in hand to hand and swordplay" another packet was handed to him "during this time he would receive no missions. during that phase, two would start, minor missions around Konoha and war games alongside fellow ANBU along with training, now with actual ninjutsu and genjutsu. Phase 3 about 5 years from now, he would begin taking missions around fire country with a more administrative approach to training, with moderate technical skills being trained as well, and phase 4 he would be a fully-fledged ANBU with a specialty starting to appear."

Hiruzen continued to look over the plan and report idly smoking his pipe, ANBU presented a strong case there was just one thing he wanted to know "what about"

* * *

Naruto hated the academy about as much as he hated walking through the streets while his fellow kids never really gave him the truly hateful glares and the quiet whispers that the adults did, they did however almost never talk to him and when they did it was mostly rude names, and insults, the fact that he was two years younger than anyone else in his class didn't help at all with the situation.

But that didn't matter none of it would matter he would show them all when he was the best, at what he didn't know the strange old man that visited him once before starting the academy seemed to be respected maybe he could work his way into that position, his musing was interrupted by the silence of the rest of the class. they had been waiting outside the classroom door after lunch to be let back in when the most badass looking ninja he had ever seen walked down the hallway her mask was cool, her armor was cool, she even had a sword across her back like a badass. he knew exactly what he would be now just like her she walked by them without even looking down and they all stared up eyes wide with awe, then before there very eyes, she disappeared into thin air! The murmurs of wow and one holy shit from a daring young kid were interrupted by their classroom door sliding open "alright brats get in here" the filed in one by one greeting their sensei once the class was seated he began. "this afternoon we will be starting the first shinobi war studies, now did anyone read ahead" Naruto promptly fell asleep.

* * *

When Naruto woke up it was not where he had been expecting instead of his classroom and instead of being awoken by an eraser it had been some cold as water and he was strapped to a chair and a very dark room "what the fuck!" he was promptly smacked in the face.

"Where did you learn that language" he didn't recognize the voice and obviously couldn't see, so he used a string of words that he learned from the conversation between two guys next to his apartment.

"From your mum" instead of getting slapped this time they punched him, he should have expected that it was the same reaction that had happened in the conversation he had seen. he knew what would come next after the next few words "you hit like her too"

rat-2 was going to have a blast with this, he and his partner snake-16 were naruto's first glimpse into the ANBU they were supposed to be his guide throughout the entire six-year training process and the pillars of his training and snake-16 was already one-minute and thirty-seven seconds in, beating the shit out of the kid she stopped smacking him around two-minutes and twenty seconds "that's it, my own mother dishes it out better than you and she's dead" two-minuets and thirty-eight and she was back at it.

"You quick for a six-year-old" rat-2 said Snake-16 had stopped three-minuets and forty-five seconds. Naruto remained silent looking in his general direction he spat one of his teeth on the ground. "well your tough kid so I'm going to feed it to you straight welcome to the ANBU I'm rat-2 and this is snake-16 we are here to guide you and keep you to your schedule we're gonna make you the best shinobi out there." The lights flickered on showing himself and snake-16

"starting today you will receive all the necessary training, nutrition, and skills to turn you into a one-hundred percent effective ANBU operator" she reached over and tossed new clothes at him "now change into these your training starts in exactly twenty minutes."

"can you untie me please!" naruto begged at them snake-16 walked away her laughter being heard even after she left the room rat-2 moved to exit as well

"good luck kid."

* * *

any reviews welcome hate or criticism especially


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Naruto

"regular speech"

 _:teamcom:_

chapter:2

Staring down at the two teams gathered rat-2 was ready for this brief it would mark the first step in rook-1's final test. Based on rook-1's shifting stance he was probably ready, or nervous rat-2 couldn't really tell when they were in decked out in full kit and rook-1 had been trained well enough to not give away little things like nervousness in his body language, but he had intuition. "relax rook you'll be fine"

"there are so many people."

"that's what you're worried about?" you would think it was the fact that the twelve-year-old was planning and co-running the largest operation the leaf ANBU had undertaken outside of war

"masks of" all eighty ANBU rose, right hand on their masks there already quite conversations now gone with the command. Rat-2 and rook-1 proceeded on the briefing stage "sit" as one they all dropped down to their chairs mask's going down with the command as well the only ones still masked were rat-2 and rook-1

"welcome to operation fireball" rat-2 began "team lead for this OP is rook-1, the secondary is myself, tertiary will be cat-5. TEAMCOM channel will be channel 7 for main and 9 for backup. the background for this mission is as follows, Intel picked up a minor bandit camp that had formed over in the land of mountains why it wasn't wiped out beforehand is not our concern however they have moved their way leaving a trail off bodies and broken towns throughout the nations they have been through including, earth bears wind rivers and now into our very own country. During this time, they've amassed some serious firepower including 2 A-rank missing-nin from iwa and 17 assorted B-rank from Kiri Konoha and wind" excitement ran through the operatives like wildfire "the two A-ranks are Haruto Suzuki and Kaito Yamada. Haruto is an excellent meat shield capable of tanking up to second class explosives. Kaito is the leader, smart and thought full he is an ex-pebble, so you should all know what to expect. Any questions."

A hand in the back was the first of many rat-2 pointed "there's a lot of people here for not even 20 missing-nin"

"Aside from nineteen shinobi there are roughly one-hundred to one-hundred thirty hardened bandits with various backgrounds in some form of combat."

More hands "I know we shouldn't care why but how come border and defense didn't stop this one?" some of the other ANBU leaned in to hear this one

"A simple border defense patrol isn't going to stop this and they're not gonna pull from their own forces when they can just push the issue up to us" the mutterings and whispers told rat-2 exactly how they felt about it but he didn't care "now if you all are done bitching it time for the op brief rook-1 you have the stage."

"thanks rat-2, now this is the OP zone a map appeared behind with a massive camp this as Intel has been calling it is the big mobile rogue camp or BMRC for short housing just under one-hundred and fifty personal it has been split in to 6 different zones red, green, blue, yellow, purple and black." The colors highlighted on the map "the teams and squads have already been split and you all should have been briefed prior for your personal assignments, now Intel has just confirmed hostages are present in the camp how many we don't know but they do know they are in purple zone" they looked to the smallest zone on the map smack in the center of red "black zone is a no go for anyone not on gamma squad. Furthermore, this is a morning OP highly visible and loud HIGHCOMM wants a statement made with this and we will supply. Now after this brief you will proceed to your designated briefing rooms with squad leaders for final briefs and assignments good luck and may the fire burn." His salute signaled dismissed and the room was very suddenly empty of all shinobi.

"you did good rook that wasn't too bad" rat-2 turned to rook "a bit on the short side but you got the point across."

"really I thought I did terribly"

"Nah it wasn't bad, now come on its time for some final prep."

* * *

The forest was no obstacle for them, they moved silently towards their target, the massive bandit camp stood out at night, fires and noise notifying them exactly where they were. They would not attack tonight, the guards were alert and ready, despite the relaxed look of the base.

 _:hawk-20 this is rat-2 how copy:_

 _:rat-2 this is hawk-20 I copy, standing by:_

 _:hawk-20 proceeded with prep phase of operation fireball in exactly one-eight-zero tics:_

 _:understood rat-2 begging prep phase of operation fireball in one-eight-zero tics:_

 _:Rook-1 this is boar-18 assault team's one through five are in position:_

 _:boar-18 this is rook-1 I copy standby for one-zero-eight-zero-zero tics:_

 _:copy rook-1 standing by:_

The wait would be long but worth it. while shinobi were pretty much expected to move and attack through the night, the leaf operated with a different operational doctrine, it's one of the many reasons they were considered the best village because while they held tradition the did not hold it in battle strategy the motto of "constant improvement constant change" was written on the intelligence departments headquarters. Were a normal village would use the night's darkness to launch an attack, the leaf while enjoying the shadows could see the enemy's alertness, the night was when they were expected to be attacked. Instead, they planned a morning raid just after the first patrols were sent out, and the day's first sentry was just starting to get bored.

The rustle in the trees next to rook-1 told him not to stab whoever came out. rabbit-37 slid in next to rook-1 and singed; _gamma TEAMCOM down, acquired runner, in position;_

 _;understood proceed with phase one;_

Rabbit-37 took off silently back from where he came. rook-1 turned back to face the camp

 _:rat-2 this is hawk-20 do you copy:_

 _:hawk-20 this is rat-2 I copy standing by:_

 _:I mark two-two HIGHCHA tangos spread through camp marking on the HUD now take note HIGHCA sigs above A-rank capacity marked in red:_

Rat-2 and everyone else on the OP noted the seventeen blue dots and five red ones that appeared on their vision. Their masks offered a multitude of benefits basic rebreathers, filters, enhanced vision, a chakra gage, a short to medium range communication system, and a clock.

 _:rook-1 this is rat-2:_

 _:this is rook-1 send it:_

 _:based on hawk-20's recon we note three HIGHCHA sigs in zone purple further recon required recommend delayed operation time by nine-zero-zero tics how copy:_

 _:I copy rat-2 all operators push phase three back nine-zero-zero tics, hawk-20 this is rook-1:_

 _:Rook-1 this is hawk-20 send it:_

 _:Authorized nine-zero-zero tics to further recon three HIGHCHA sigs in zone purple:_

 _:Roger that rook-1 proceeding:_

Hawk-20 broke TEAMCOM and singed to his team to follow. They crept up towards red zones outer perimeter he looked over to hawk-22 and pointed towards his chest hawk-22 shook his head no and without a flare or a sound he could see everything around himself his vision which had been the bright green of a morning forest was now a sharp grey with mix of blue fires in different places the three he was focusing on where in what he knew as zone purple from what he could make out they were in a triangle formation only one was actively moving.

The explosive booms in the distance idly he noticed that they were in zone black which meant gamma squad was attacking when they shouldn't, he had been authorized nine-hundred tics and it just reached two-hundred and three. TEAMCOM chatter exploded,

 _:gamma team what the fuck:_

 _:who the fuck told them to fucking attack:_

 _:shit they're not responding their TEAMCOM must be down:_

 _:Fucking shit we've been had assault team 3 is under fire:_

 _:all teams this is rook-1 proceed with operation fireball salvage what you can of your assignment:_

In the 5 seconds of stagnation between orders hawk-22 had lost control of his chakra suppression and his full reserves went into overdrive as his adrenalin spiked it was suddenly ended by a kunai to the heart from the nin in zone purple and he had another fifth of a tic before the sizzling around the handle began "fuck"

Rook-1 sprang forward after shouting orders through TEAMCOM as the stadium-sized area erupted into chaos rat-2 landed next to him as he took cover next to an already upturned supply cart, a fireball flew overhead towards the camp courtesy of tiger-18 behind him, rat-2 looked at him "what the hell just happened"

Rook-1 could feel the stare behind the mask "gamma squad lost coms and I forgot to send a runner to their position to warn them"

"You forgot!"

"yes I forgot and I fucked up but we can still work with this right" rat-2 stared a moment longer before an arrow pierced their cover in between them, rook-1 popped up and launched a kunai with a tag attached towards where it had come from a solid boom five tics later and an eyeball rolling by let them know it worked.

"have team two move towards zone red, and get recon to try and help team three I think you can plan from there"

 _:Rhino-10 this is rook-1 do you copy:_

In the ten seconds it took to reply three bandits charged their cover he ducked under the first one's clumsy swing, a reverse grip kunai entered the man's right kidney the second man was blindsided by rat-2 and the third didn't even get a swing before rook-1 had another kunai out and through the soft part of the man's jaw and in to his brain the man's eye was twitching and his left arm shook like he was being electrocuted.

 _:rook-1 this is rhino-10 are you there:_

 _:I'm here rhino-10 I've got orders proceeded to zone red and take team three's mission of extraction of hostages:_

 _:Roger rook-1 proceeding to zone red:_

 _:Hawk-20 this is rook-1 how copy:_

The crackle on speaker did not bode well, he looked over to rat-2 "go help team three take beetle-16 and snake-30 ill move with tiger-18 towards recon to make contact"

"Roger that" rat to sprinted away signaling beetle-16 and snake-30 to follow tiger-18 moved up next to rook-1 he paused three tics to take a breath before leaping up over the nearly destroyed cart the duo moved through the battle dodging bodies and weapons. a man missing an arm ran blindly forward screaming nothing holding his stump of a left arm. a missing-nin kunoichi about skewer an ANBU was tackled by another ANBU, who was quickly decapitated by a bigger shinobi he reached to pick the kunoichi up before rook-1 bifurcated the man from the top down with his tanto, and tiger-18 gutted the kunoichi the first ANBU didn't even speak before she was gone already engaged in another fight.

 _:all teams this is rhino-10 A-rank missing-nin in zone red I repeat A-rank missing-nin in zone red team two has engaged:_

Rook-1 cut through a burning tent to try and move through the edge of zone black to avoid going any were in zone red while zone black contained the more dangerous enemies, zone red was were the heaviest fighting was and you were most likely to be accidentally stabbed, burnt or just killed in any number of ways a massive explosion went of in zone blue

:all teams this is team one zone blue clear of all hostile:

:team one this is rook-1 proceed to zone yellow replace team two who has taken team three's assignment:

:understood rook-1:

Whatever he would have heard from team one was cut off when he hit the last position of recon. There wasn't much left of Hawk-22 or the rest of the four-man team, they had been decimated robin-25's body was still convulsing "I think she's still alive sir" while tiger-18 had officially been an ANBU operative no one except for rat-2 had been in the ANBU longer than rook-1 and the "younger" ANBU learnt quickly that rook-1 could be either your best friend or your worst nightmare in the ops teams.

"start BLS you idiot don't just stand there"

:standby team this is rook-1 do you copy:

:this is beaver-1 I copy:

:Beaver-1 I need a tac-evac just directly north of zone red:

:Roger rook-1 three-zero-zero tics out:

"CONTACT RIGHT!"

Tiger-18 didn't even get to look up before he was barreled over by a heavily injured Haruto, rook-1 launched himself at the escaping enemy latching on to the man's back and stabbing at his neck all it accomplished was a broken kunai and an injured hand. Haruto reached over with his right hand and grabbed him by the top of his cloak and whipped him over his head and down into the ground leaving a crater rook-1 was thoroughly dazed all he could see was a foot raised above his head, before he was incinerated by tiger-18 whatever technique had kept him safe before was made obsolete when tiger-18 had attacked.

The man was still convulsing when the standby team had arrived "I hope it's not him" beaver-1 looked at the still twitching corpse

"ha, no it not him tiger were you at" tiger-18 was dragging robin-25 over beaver held up a hand.

"we will take it from here tiger" beaver-1 took robin-25 with the rest of her team

They headed back towards the now diminishing sounds of combat and got back just in time missing-nin lay down in the dirt with her hands on her head. "well it looks like we've got a good handle on thing here" rat-2 came up behind him clamping a hand on rook-1's shoulder "begin combing the bodies take ours leave theirs gather the intelligence and get those hostages out of here come on people you know the drill, rook a word." Taking him into the least damaged tent around rat-2 sat rook-1 down and squatted in front of him. "what went wrong?"

"gamma teams coms went down, and I froze when things went off plan."

"Good at least you know part what went wrong with you and the platoon today what else?"

"I don't know uh... nothing else really went wrong."

"so, you didn't get blindsided by Haruto today"

Rook-1 looked down in embarrassment a soft I did escape him "yes you did, you forgot your surroundings and you were lucky you had a teammate with you otherwise we would not be having this conversation, other than that you did an excellent job after unfreezing and I guided you a bit you responded accordingly and accurately guiding your platoon today after I left which is why we're going to finally approve your induction."

Rook-1 looked up and rat-2 new behind that mask big blue eyes were staring up at him with unbridled happiness "Really!" rat-2 nodded and rook-1 hugged him.

"careful you brat wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Alright kid calm down it's probably time for us to move soon"

It took another hour before the platoon was ready to head off towards Konoha and travel back was slow of the eighty ANBU that had been in the raid thirteen had died over all and another 5 were too injured to walk along with the released hostages it made slow goings but just after the sixty-one thousandth tic of the day they walk through the gates of the village

* * *

Sakura Haruno had been a genin for just under a month when her team had drawn its first gate duty while normally a two chunin job it could be given to a genin team with low jonin super vision meaning that their sensei Kakashi Hatake dipped out almost immediately and came back once an hour to check on them. it also meant that she and the rest of her team were horribly underprepared for an entire platoon of ANBU attempt to walk through the gate and while Ami her one teammate and she used the term very loosely, was content to just let them go through no questions asked she was going to follow proper protocol.

"Halt!" she had actually managed to stop them which was good now she had no idea what the heck to do and no she had some seventy ANBU black ops staring at her. the list on in the outpost said to see papers so that's what it would be "I need some papers" she held out her hand expectantly try and failing to sound confident they were dirty, bloody and if she looked right one or two were missing an arm. on in a beaver mask walk up to her looked down and Sakura had never felt so small

"you got balls, kid I like that" then she brushed passed with no intention of giving sakura any papers

"Hey, wait you can't just!" and then her sensei was there, calmly walking towards the group he would put them in their place for sure. When he started talking with the one in the rat mask and a really short one in a blank mask she was stunned when they all started laughing and she could tell based on the short ones point that it was about her, she turned red and stomped off towards the outpost

"so how did it go?" she ignored Ami she wasn't going to let it get to her, she was definitely not. "did you at least get a name to put in the log book"

"first of all, bitch"

* * *

The walk to the Hokage tower had been somewhat pleasant the former hostages and the injured had been taken to the hospital and the report to intelligence was short brief and to the point. Rook-1 and rat-2 had barely made it out of the intelligence building when their tattoos burned a direct summons from the Hokage and even as dirty and bloody as they were they would answer.

"rise" they rose from their kneeling positions "you did an excellent job today Naruto" protocol broken rook-1 removed his mask

"thank you lord Hokage" Hiruzen looked at Naruto, the boy had grown over the years under the care of the ANBU while to the epic warrior they had promised yet he could see how it would for sure come about.

"it has been a long time since you were accepted in to the ranks of the ANBU" Naruto almost snorted "and I can see now that you are quite ready to be a full-fledged member, which is why I Hiruzen sarutobi third Hokage of the hidden leaf village grant you the rank of chunin with this come all of the benefits and responsibilities along with this I allow the ANBU division to perform a full recruitment on your persons do you accept."

Naruto dropped to his knee "I humbly accept my lord Hokage"

"then rise ANBU operative otter and take the sword that you will use to defend Konoha from all of her enemies"

* * *

HIGHCOMM: high command

TEAMCOM: team communications

BLS: basic life saving

how I have modeled the ranks/masks in the anbu kind of like the united states navy each mask represents a specific job/rate in the anbu and each number represents a rank in that job/rate

thank you for reading

any reviews are welcome haters especially


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Naruto stared down at his mask it had come in last week from the armory despite being an official ANBU he didn't receive his actual mask for roughly two weeks and while it had kind of irked him that they had called him rook-1 when he should have been otter-5 it was strange now that, that wouldn't be the case. He looked at his room, he had one now, at single digits you were considered an officer unless you were a rook and received a room in the barracks to yourself or an increase in pay to get housing unless you already owned one out in the city which obviously he didn't.

He took one last look at the mask before putting it on, and went to look at the mirror and reservations about being called a new name vanished when he saw how badass he looked fresh black BDU's with the grey advanced combat armor and mask with a brand new tanto sheathed across his back he looked like a badass

"stop admiring yourself and come outside, you have a mission" rat-2 knew him a little too well spinning he walked out into the hallway and right into a haymaker he ducked a kunai was in his hand as he jabbed to the left were it had come from the person dogged grabbed his arm and used his momentum to slam him into the wall, bouncing off dazed he still managed to duck under the chop to his neck bringing he elbow into the crotch of the second attacker dropping them immediately. He turned to face the one remaining only for his feet to be taken out by the one on the ground, they had him in a grapple hold and then he saw darkness.

* * *

The room was dark, and the chair was a cold metal when he woke up, he tested the restraints. "ANBU agent otter-5 you have been deemed worthy to ascend to the ranks of ANBU. knowing the risks, you have faithfully thrust yourself into the dark, and we have caught you. It's up to you now to pick which path in the darkness you will follow."

Naruto knew the answer he had been planning this for so long it felt surreal that it was actually happing "which path is presented to me"

A voice from the left "The shadow is presented to you its darkness welcomes you into its cold embrace."

A voice to his center "the darkness of truth is presented to you and all of its ugly details."

A voice on his right "the dark mutterings of knowledge is presented to you with all her horrible thoughts."

A voice behind him "the black of the night is presented to you and seeks that you use it to crush her enemies"

So black-ops, recon, intelligence, and assault teams all wanted him for their department, but he really didn't know what he wanted to do. If he thought this was probably the first time he wasn't told how or when to do anything. He ruled out assault teams while rat-2 would be disappointed it just wasn't what he felt was right for him he thought of the three others intelligence was interesting but ultimately a whole lot of extra work, now he was down to two.

"I accept the shadows cold embrace" while he couldn't see he could tell the others had left

"Welcome to the dark side" were the last things he heard before he was asleep again.

* * *

Naruto woke in his own barracks room scanning the room to make sure no one did anything weird while he was asleep he got up a new set of clothes had been set out for him his mask the same white background now with purple stripes to signify his commitment to the black-op teams and yellow to show his rank. His armor was different now though while he would look relatively the same to all other fellow nin amongst the ANBU it would tell them just where he belonged, the armor its self, was a darker grey than normal the forearm guards just a tad shorter and the overall armor a little tighter it also came with a black cape and hood style cloak all signifying his commitment to the black ops department of the ANBU. If he thought he looked good before now it was even better the darkness factor had increased and he looked intimating for a 5'2 twelve-year-old.

a note was slipped under his door

 _agent otter-5_

 _welcome to team 1 of the ANBU department for Konoha I am mantis-1, I am pleased to have a fellow officer of your status added to our ranks I look forward to working with you in the future. your indoc Is scheduled at tic 3-2-4-0-0 in the Hokage tower, mantis-14 will be your contact, he will be located near the mission distribution area._

 _The code word is sigma._

 _Mantis-1 team 1 captain_

Naruto arrived at the thirty-thousandth tic, he had come out of a body flicker flawlessly no smoke or leaves, seeing the awed academy students out for recess made the concentration totally worth it. The tower wasn't too busy a few chunin here and a there, and most gave him a wide berth. The few ANBU in the building, that he could see were on watch gave him the traditional greeting amongst the operators. Two fingers tapping above the heart twice which he returned in kind for the first time officially, it felt good. He made his way to the mission distribution room, where if he wasn't too early mantis-14 would be waiting.

There was almost nobody here, there were two lazy chunin who had straightened up as soon as he entered, but that was it he did suppose that he was slightly early with one-thousand-two-hundred tics to go, but ANBU were always at least twenty minutes early, which meat mantis was hiding somewhere, he just had to find him.

It was a mantis he was looking for so an assassin type, the wall behind him was too thin for a melding technique the ceiling and floor were chakra resistant to deter infiltrators that left that left the two chunin and a potted plant which he ruled out immediately, why did he do that he didn't even give himself a reason, then a reason appeared because it's just a potted plant. That's right it is, it's just a.

Otter-5 launched a kunai at the plant and instead of shattering it made the meaty sound of a knife entering a body, he really hoped he didn't kill his new teammate. The illusion shattered stunning the two chunin, and the biggest man otter-5 had ever seen was sitting on the desk he was huge how this man was a mantis he would never comprehend. Mantis-14 was laughing the kunai sticking into his arm seemingly meant nothing to him. "you're as good as they say, kid" he stepped off the desk nearly cracking the floor when he landed "I'm mantis, it good to meet you" he stuck out his hand which nearly quadrupled his own as he took it.

"otter"

"Ah a man of many words I'm gonna like you" otter-5 could tell mantis-14 was smiling under his mask, they made their way out leaving the gaping chunin in the room "oh and let me be the first to say welcome to team one is otherwise known as the baby killer team"

"really?"

"Nah, I'm just fucking with you, but you never know how missions go here sometimes"

"I understand" they had moved out of the tower to directly behind it near the academy obstacle course. A single hand seal from mantis-14 and one side of the monkey bars dropped into the sand below then the sand itself split allowing the monkey bars to fall into the new pit they slid down into a clang and hung forming a ladder down into the darkness. The climb down felt longer than what it was supposed to and as soon as otter-5's head was under the ground any light was gone. when he touched down on the ground his mask's HUD lit up like there were lights on.

"it's some fancy seal work, there are no lights in the building, and only team one mask's pick up on the seal laid throughout the HQ." mantis-14 explained as they made their way down a long tunnel with a multitude of doors that mantis-14 was pointing out "that's the armory, that's the training chamber, the lounge, and this is the ops center." He opened the door at the end of the hallway. It had the presentation of being brightly lit but otter-5 knew now that it would be nothing but dark if he took his mask off. Mantis 1 was standing over a table surrounded by stacks of paper and a few operatives. "mantis-1 this is otter-5" mantis-14 took a step back and in a showy move presented said otter-5 with a flourish. Mantis-1 turned and spoke

"why is there a kunai in your arm?" mantis-14 seemed startled for a second before he laughed

"to be honest I forgot about it"

"fair enough, go see bever-20"

"roger that boss, good luck otter-5."

Mantis-1 reached over to a seemingly random folder and grabbed it flipping it open she skimmed through it and otter-5 could feel the frustration wafting off mantis-1 if he guessed right that was probably a copy of his only available file without consulting the Hokage

"so, your name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yes, Mam."

"that's pretty much all that's not blacked out on this damn thing so tell me Naruto who are you, where did you get recruited from, how old are you even?"

"I am otter-5 I am agile, creative, and adaptable. I was recruited out of the academy at six and received training from rat-2 and snake-16, until her death, for just under seven years meaning I am just under thirteen years old." Mantis-1 didn't show it but she was a little stunned at his age and excited by the gem she had managed to recruit."

"when did you start missions?"

"Just after I turned ten I started participating in war games and minor intelligence raids. My first official mission was operation fireball which I ran as op lead."

"any special skills?"

"wind and water techniques and I'm decent in a knife fight and with a tanto, and I'm uh…"

"You're what?"

"The nine-tails jinjuriki" the silence hurt, and no doubt his new teammates in the room heard this. It shouldn't bother him really but there was always a nagging doubt in his head that he would be rejected

"this is good, this is really good" mantis-1 turned to the chimp masked operator " where do you think we can put him?"

"viper team mam, that would be best. we can move fox-7 from team lead to here at ops center and have crow-4 run viper team, with otter-5 here as his second." Mantis-1 pondered it for roughly twenty tics before she nodded

"it makes sense well do it owl-22 type up the orders bear-20 take otter-5 here to viper team's quarters" she looked to otter-5 "welcome to team one, I'll be your team lead for the foreseeable future"

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Otter-5 stared at the door it read VIPER TEAM on it and in an almost childish scrawl underneath it someone had written "that means no one else" he wanted to nock he really did but something probably nervousness was holding him back. Bear-20 had left almost immediately after showing him the room with a surprisingly soft-spoken: "welcome to the team." The door opened and a kunoichi in a robin mask nearly ran into him

"oh, who are you" her voice was sharp and startled something in his stomach and her strawberry blond hair was really distracting, he shook himself out of whatever this was and introduced himself.

"I'm otter-5, I'm uh here'cus, I was uh, assigned to the team" he stiffly held out the orders that owl-22 had typed out for her to grab which she didn't do.

"hold on." She disappeared slamming the door in his face, again facing the VIPER TEAM sign he didn't expect this should he knock or say something. It wouldn't hurt to knock reaching up to do so the door opened, and he ended up knocking on a fox masked shinobis chest plate once.

"ah, sorry I didn't mean."

"It's okay kid. Robin-19 said you were assigned to our squad, I'm fox-7 by the way."

"right, I'm otter-5, and mantis-1 wanted me to give these to you" passing the orders over to fox-7, who began filtering through them, muttering a finally when he read that he was being transferred out.

"well, we might as well go introduce you, come on." He reopened the door leading otter-5 in. otter-5 counted five others in the medium-sized room aside from him and fox-7. "alright gents listen up I got some good news and some bad news as well; good news is this is otter-5" he gave a short wave "and he will be taking over as second for the squad, and the bad news is crow-4 is taking over primary." He sounded pretty sarcastic about the second part.

"But what about you sir?" a medium-sized man in a lion masked questioned

"I'll be moving over to OP center to help run missions." Rest of the team nodded "now I'm gonna get my things and head on over to OP center the rest of you should begin the indoc process for otter here."

"yes, sir" they coursed in sync.

After fox-7 had left with his gear and happy goodbyes crow-4 turned and addressed the squad "Alright boys, and girl today we have lost a great team leader, but we gained an even better one! In the shape of me!"

"boo you suck!" no one could pick out who had said it.

"fuck all of you, and to commemorate this great day we shall combine our introductions with otter-5 here with a celebration of my self-becoming a squad leader" by now otter-5 had figured out who had written on the front of the door. "so, we will all meet at the jonin lounge at fifty-seven-thousand tics. in the meantime, I will need to meet with the impressively young otter here dismissed." The rest of the squad made for the exit while otter-5 made to sit in one of the comfy chairs in the room.

"First, welcome to team one and also welcome to viper team as you know I am crow-4, you don't have your worry about any of this sir nonsense you're my new secondary so were good. I guess I'm your new team lead" crow had stuck his hand out and when otter took it, it was firm but the shake its self, relaxed "now straight to business. my expectations from you for this team are for you to give it your all never leave a man behind and to take care of yourself, none of this working yourself to death thing that some of the younger ANBU seem to have. Now the boring stuff is done let's get a quick skills demonstration out of the way for official purposes then we can head to the lounge."

* * *

Sweat dripped hands, it had been a skills check that was for sure but no quick at all roughly fourteen-hundred tics later and it didn't look like they were gonna stop soon. At least crow looked in a worse shape than he did, crow-4 would need new armor after this.

"Alright, I think I've seen enough" crow-4 panted out "you're really good otter I'll give you that your ninjutsu is fantastic for what you've got. Too bad you can't cast any genjutsu, but your detection and removal are great. And the only thing wrong with your taijutsu is that your small and we can't do shit about that, knife and swordplay are not too bad too. You're gonna be great one day."

"that's the plan"

"you don't say much do you kid?"

I've never had much freedom, I was recruited at 6, didn't really get much chance to talk or do much of anything outside of training for a while." Crow-4 nodded his head

"makes sense, well we'll just have to break you out of this shell won't we"

"I guess"

Alright, come on kid we got like seven-thousand tics before we have to be in the lounge and I want to freshen up a bit."

"uh…"

"what is It?"

"well it's three things really" otter-5 had never felt so embarrassed

"and they are?"

"Well I'm only a chunin, and I don't think they'll let me into the jonin lounge, and I also don't have any civis." He looked down feeling his face burn.

"that's it! Don't worry kid I'll just borrow some of my nephew's stuff it might fit you and you don't gotta worry about the lounge your ANBU remember, just act the part."

* * *

Crow-4 had met him at his room in the ANBU barracks with clothes that fit surprisingly fine now in jeans and a polo shirt Naruto took a little time to attempt to fix his hair before giving up and moving into his room where crow-4 was waiting.

"Looking good uh…shit"

"Naruto Uzumaki"

"ah Naruto, cool name, by the way, I'm Riku Nara." They made to leave the barracks

"your pretty energetic for a Nara"

"ya, I get that a lot, I get it from my mom." He sounded somewhat depressed about it. "but at least I use it for something, ya know, my older brother got the laziness and a majority of the brains too."

"Shakuka right"

"yep!" the rest of the trip was made in a somewhat comfortable silence at least for Naruto he spent it thinking how he would introduce himself to the team should he play it cool, or should he be formal he stopped his pondering when they arrived, and the butterflies landed in his stomach.

True to the shinobi way, epically the higher ranks of jonin, the ever famous jonin lounge was a sequestered hidey-hole smack in the middle of a random market street. its entrance is hidden in a back-alley way of some nondescript clothing store. When they prepared to enter the bouncer a retired jonin himself was ready. Riku got in no problem being a loyal customer, Naruto on the other hand.

"The fuck you think you're doing kid." It didn't matter that he had come with Riku all that mattered was his worth and he obviously couldn't go around spouting out that he was ANBU but he kind of needed to get in the only thing he could think to do was give the ANBU greeting as discreet as possible his right hand popped up tapping above his heart with two fingers. The bouncer seemed to judge him for a minute before moving off and letting him in. Naruto released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Relax kid, it not like he would have beat you up for trying." when they entered all eyes flashed to them and immediately away some gazes lingered, mostly on Naruto, and Naruto took the time to observe around him he recognized some faces but didn't show it mostly for the traditional secrecy that ANBU upheld, and the fact that most of the ANBU he recognized here had gotten out.

They were waved down by a lumberjack faced man with the hair to match at the bar who Riku moved to join. "everyone else is at the fifth table on from the back, I'm just grabbing the drinks." Riku made to move away towards the table.

"Do you need any help carrying them? I'm Naruto by the way."

"Asahi no last name, and are you even allowed to touch alcohol?"

"I can touch a tanto."

"Ya got me there" the drinks came with an odd look from the barkeep before the made their way towards their table and passed them out. Naruto found himself sitting between Asahi and the pretty blond from before.

"Alright everybody this is Naruto Uzumaki, our new 'fiend" he meant that as, they would probably all become friends at some time, but for now it meant that he was new to the squad "Naruto, you've probably met Asahi, but the pretty blond next to you is Yui Chiba" she gave a small wave " the angsty teen here is Yuuto Hyuga" he just grunted "and last but not least handsome party boy here is Reo Sano"

"you know I thought you were just a short teenager, now I can see your like ten"

"I'm twelve"

They looked a little stunned "so you're like a super ninja or something?"

"no, I was just recruited at six, and trained at HIGHCOMM until I turned eleven, and finally ran my final test op at twelve." though Naruto had been practically raised by the ANBU he hadn't been raised with the ANBU he had spent most of his time at HIGHCOMM training center sure there were a few faces and names he could remember but it was mostly just him rat-2 and snake-16 until her death in the Uchiha slaughter. All, except Riku who knew most of this already, seemed a little put-off but accepted it as just another village Skelton.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

_;hand signs;_

 _:teamcom:_

Chapter 5

The seal on their arms burned hot for the first time in a month, then pulsed once signifying a direct summons from the Hokage. It had been a nice month spent, running training ops and pulling village security, As ANBU weren't "loaned out" like the rest of Konoha's shinobi forces. They existed solely for the purpose the security and interest of Konoha they didn't take client mission and they didn't take requests.

One second the Hokage's office had only himself and team one's leader mantis-1 and the next six anbu were kneeling in front of the Hokage. "viper team reporting as ordered my lord"

"rise" they stood in unison with no sound, and mantis-1 addressed them.

"viper team today we received word from Kakashi Hatake his team of genin was ambushed by the elite A-rank missing-nin known as Zabuza Momochi in the land of waves and he has requested further back up for his mission. However, this mission has entered a precarious state as the company known as the Gato cooperation aka GC has taken over the land of waves. Unknown to most the GC provides us with cheap shipping lanes, recourses and access to a multitude of other countries and they provide this service to other countries. With the situation as it is, an opportunity has presented its self to gain control over the GC and the country ourselves allowing us to maintain the benefits while cutting off other countries. Your primary mission is the elimination and requisition of the GC." She paused to hand out mission packets to the squad "inside are your primary mission objectives along with a plan of action and funds for any potential monetary needs for the primary mission objective. The lordHokagee has your secondary and tertiary objective brief."

The Hokage cleared his aging throat "your secondary mission is to assist genin team seven in their mission as best you can while your tertiary mission is to ensure the survival of Sasuke Uchiha as he is a vital village asset. These two objectives are to appear as your primary objective as Konoha cannot be implemented in the hostile take over of a legal company. Your primary mission objectives are deemed rank Sierra while your secondary and tertiary are deemed both deemed alpha ranked. Mission packets are not required for those two objectives, dismissed" to even further end the conversation the Hokage spun in his chair to look out the window at the village. Mantis-1 jerked her head towards the door.

Once outside the office mantis-1 lead them towards one of the many briefing rooms inside the administrative department "what's up with the old man he didn't seem like himself?" wasp-12 ever the icebreaker cut through the tension.

"Well, Reo." Protocol broke they all removed their masks except mantis-1 "intelligence picked up some info on Orochimaru today that has been more than troubling, but you needn't worry about that now, you have your own mission. Good luck viper team and may your fire burn bright!"

* * *

The trip to the land of waves was made in mostly silence and they only took a 900-tic break at the halfway mark before continuing to wave country. It was foggy when they arrived to foggy for their HUD's advanced optics to break. Taking cover on a rocky beach alcove crow-4 TEAMCOM'ed _:turtle_ _any contact: turtle-23 stilled for ten tics_

 _:negative:_

 _:roger check every 20 tics, minimum chakra use:_

 _:understood:_

they flickered away, using the mist to their advantage to approach a small hamlet that only turtle-23 could see they sat in the forest twenty-one meters away from the small town _:any sign of Kakashi:_

 _:not him but I see two genin:_

 _:roger, otter, robin make contact, the rest of us will follow at fifteen meters out:_

Two calls of moving signified robin and otter were making their way towards the genin.

Despite the danger, the fact that she hadn't had a proper wash in two weeks and her sensei was currently injured. Sakura was having some fun here in wave country mostly because during some of her guard duty she got to spend some alone time with Sasuke. she cast a glance over to him and instead of seeing a handsome young man her vision was blocked by two shinobi in black cloaks and grey masks. She jumped back startled and scared, mostly scared "w-who are you" Sasuke rushed them attempting to knife the taller one from behind, and then the taller one was behind Sasuke holding his arm up stretching it up with one hand and choking him out with their other arm.

"where is Kakashi Hatake" she shivered when the short one in the otter mask addressed her.

"uh...uh…" Sasuke released a weird coughing noise "he's at our clients resting, but you cant have him!" she brought up a kunai in an attempt to defend herself.

 _:Otter, Robin, quit hazing the genin we found Kakashi, proceed northeast three thousand meters then head east another twenty meters. Same plan as before you two will make contact:_

 _:understood:_ otter-5 dogged a wild swing from Sakura before flickering away followed by Robin-28

"Sakura" Sasuke rasped out of his sore throat "go warn Kakashi."

"r-right" she sped off to tell sensei that people were coming for him.

She had never run so fast in her life reaching the house she slammed open the door "sensei!"

"Ah, Sakura, aren't you s'posed to be on guard duty?" he didn't even look phased by her sudden entrance although tsunami and dropped the pot she had been cleaning.

"there is some black cloaked ninja looking for you, and they hurt Sasuke!"

"really?" he turned where he was sitting to face two black … cloaked …ninja, oh shit "did you two hurt my little Sasuke?"

The short one spoke "I have no idea who this Sasuke is"

"well that's settled then" he looked down at his watch "its half past four here so Sasuke should be here soon anyway, oh and Sakura this is our back up" he gestured towards the nin behind him.

"b-b-backup"

"I don't see the point in repeating it but yes, our backup." Sasuke entered the house and immediately glared at Robin-28 but didn't say anything, Kakashi just smiled

: _otter robin this Is crow stay put and begin secondary duties, the rest of us will begin primary duties and call if we need help. you two will form viper-2 and we will be viper-1:_

 _:Understood crow:_ well this mission sucks.

The next few hours were a blur of nothing otter-5 and Robin-28 stood in the corner making conversation through TEAMCOM so no one in the room with them would hear them. Team seven had sat down for dinner which the ANBU agents would refuse.

 _:viper-2 this is crow how copy:_

 _:this is otter go ahead:_

 _:we need one of you to meet us at the alcove for an op:_

Otter-5 looked at Robin-28 just as a melodramatic moment went off at the dinner table with way too much shouting for their tastes.

Robin-28 signed to him _;you go, ill be fine here;_ a plate crashed on the ground spilling food everywhere. _;hopefully;_ swiping two fingers across the mouth of his mask in an ANBU smile he flickered out of the house.

* * *

At the alcove otter-5 pulsed his tattoo with chakra and got four pulses back in return entering he saw that viper-1 had been busy in these last few hours a man was strapped to a chair and had been cut up for interrogation hardly even recognizable. Crow-4 looked to him "we're going with attack plan four"

The mission packets had come with a multitude of different plans the intelligence department had come up with for their primary objectives. attack plan four, was more of a scare tactics plan it involved acquiring a disloyal member of the GC to become their new puppet head and they would act as the enforcement in the hostile takeover of the company using the funds provided to buy out the thugs that the GC had previously hired.

Crow-4 pointed to the back of the cave where a man with no shirt, tattoos, and an eye patch was sitting "that's Waraji, the new head of the GC, and that's" he pointed to the man in the chair "zori, gato just killed him for asking too many questions." Otter-5 nodded "we are gonna take both them into the town, near the out outskirts there is a bar that the fringes of Gato's hired thugs go, we're going to hire as many as possible for waraji and eliminate those that don't join, the current plan is for a cancer style cell in the GC's forces." Otter-5 nodded

"can we trust them, at all."

"hell no, these are the shittiest people I've ever seen, but they like money and we have a lot of it."

They moved off to a bar on the far edge of town at the seventy-second-thousandth tic of the day. the bar's exterior was rotten, smelled and was perfect for what they needed. Lion-22 followed waraji into the bar while the others set up a perimeter. Thirty men trickled out of the bar six-hundred tics later

 _:Crow this is lion:_

 _:send it:_

 _:All targets leaving the building now are hostile, engage:_

 _:roger lion:_

 _:viper-1 engage hostiles, keep it as quiet as possible:_

Otter-5 leapt silently from the darkness of the forest towards the front three men landing on the first one with his tanto piercing the man's head he let go drawing two kunai and spinning so that they both stabbed into the last two man's throats and they went down with a gurgle. The next group of six men where too startled by the sudden deaths of the first three to react as otter-5 ran into their group eviscerating the first man and splitting the second down the trunk of his body leaving the tanto stuck in, he engaged the third man who had is sword draw blocked by otter-5's hand and a kunai jammed up through his jaw. Grasping the half-drawn sword, he spun while dropping to a knee under the fourth man's chaotic swing and drew the katana cutting the man in half. The fifth and six men attempted to take him on together one going high and the other going low with their katana swings, only for them to cut apart a log. two kunai pierced the base of their skulls.

Retrieving two his tanto out of the second man _:three targets fleeing into the woods on the right:_

 _:on it:_

 _:Fuck two to the left:_

 _:I got it:_

Otter moved to the left easily spotting their wild tracks on the wet ground of the forest. he flanked their right blindsiding the closest man with a tanto cloths line taking off his head, he face the next one and sliced off the hand of the young girl that attempted to punch him with a half moon type arc of his tanto, twirling it he stabbed it through her throat before she could scream in pain. She waved her arm around gasping for air that wouldn't come before otter-5 stabbed her in the heart.

 _:all targets down, silence the injured:_

Otter-5 moved back to the main battle site seeing a man attempt to drag himself away using his remaining arm. otter-5 placed a boot on his back "NO, NO, NO, plea-. He moved away to the next one

'ill be quiet man, come on."

The next one just coughed up blood.

The last one struggled "fuck you"

 _:all injured have been silenced, begin clean up:_

* * *

The clean up took a while gathering the bodies, and body parts took a while. Burning them took even longer as they had to make it a small as possible to attract more enemies. Covering the blood took forever it was dark and their HUD's barely picked it up with advanced optics. In the end, they only recruited seventeen new men, but their loyalty was secured when they came out in the middle of clean up.

Otter-5 made it back to the house on the twenty-five-thousandth tic of the day, right when team seven and the civilian family were sitting down for breakfast. Kakashi smiled at his disheveled and very bloody form "you must have had a good night! You look like shit!" the genin looked green and the little civilian kid had gone to puke.

"I had an excellent night, thank you" he looked to tsunami not that she could tell behind his mask. "do you happen to have a shower" something that had been stuck between his hood and his hair slipped and fell plopping on to the floor. She stared at him, mouth gaping like a fish, the pink and purple haired girls ran off somewhere. Kakashi gave him the answer still smiling

"they don't but, there is a pond out back that is just the perfect temp"

"thanks" he headed off leaving those left severely creeped out and Robin-28 on TEAMCOM laughing.

* * *

drop a review or pm me an idea that you might think will work in the story or if you just wanna rant about how much it sucks, im down for anything


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After the initial raid at the bar four days ago, and lion-22's infiltration of the GC's lower members recruitment was slow steady and controlled, the thirty missing men and the death of zori had led to Gato's leadership being called into question, and expert whispers from turtle-23 and wasp-14 led to the citizens beginning to question authority. Currently, otter-5 was seated on a tree watching over team seven while robin-28 slept.

It was one of the few days in the week that Kakashi had said they had before Zabuza would come back, that the team could do some training. Otter-5 would barely call it that, the pink girl had completed tree walking on her first try okay fine that's decent. then, purple girl sent insults her way usually about her forehead crushing pinks new confidence, pink would look to black for some sort of reassurance or something like that and black obviously couldn't care less about what was going on unless it was about him making it up the tree. He was going to lose his mind they had done this three times already.

He was saved by Robin-28 her hair distracting him for a bit too long. _:you good otter:_

 _:uhh…ya I'm fine just bored. nothing really to do, what about you, you still have thirty-six hundred tics left:_

 _:Couldn't sleep:_ she paused to watch black, blow himself off a tree _:had a nightmare.:_

 _:do you, uh.. wanna talk about it:_

 _:Nah I'm over it:_ boy was he glad she said no

 _:Oi! Chatty Kathy's, channel two:_ a tap on the side of his mask switched him over

 _:every one here:_ five clicks in response _:good tomorrow phase one of what we're calling operation takeover is starting waraji has moved our two-zero-zero what we're calling cancer troops into base duty however they are still outnumbered, two to one, so he's organized a bandit raid with the help of lion. they will be smuggled tomorrow right after Zabuza plans to attack, to the alcove and attack the main shipping Wearhouse to draw out some of GC's loyalist forces. after that the team will split otter, Robin, turtle will be viper-2 and move on the GC's head compound to assist the cancer troops with the compound take over, at three-two-four-zero-zero tics. wasp, and lion will be viper-3, and will assist and control the bandits during the Wearhouse raid once all operations are done and we have secured the GC compound a team from intelligence will move in to "assist" waraji on the business side of things. Any questions.:_

 _:who's covering team seven:_

 _:I will provide backup for team seven:_

 _:who's using what channel and what are the ROE's:_

 _:Viper-1, myself will be switching between channel eight which will be viper-2 and channel eleven which will be viper-3. ROE's are whatever it takes to complete the mission. Now get start prepping viper-2 will rendezvous at the alcove before moving off to the outskirts of the GC compound in three-six-zero-zero tics. Understood:_ five more clicks in response and they prepared to move

Kakashi watched the two young ANBU flicker away and squashed the brief pang of jealousy he felt down now was not the time to reminisce in the somewhat good times he had in ANBU, his genin had forced enough memories to the surface and their constant questions had been giving him quite the headache, it was mostly Sasuke asking about the ANBU as the girls were still unnerved by little otter's show the other day but it was still enough to hurt just a little.

* * *

When they arrived at the caves entrance it was busy wasp-12, and turtle-23 was busy breaking down the makeshift camp lion-22 was pouring over a map with what was definitely a bandit and crow-4 was instructing waraji on his own take over of the GC compound. "ah otter, robin just who I was talking about" pulling them over he sat them at the table "These two, plus turtle over there are gonna be you support for the OP now we were just talking about your placement waraji say the best place should be here" he pointed at the "on the south side of the compound near the corner right there, its were a majority of his men are."

"what about the other side?" otter stood up headed to the northern part of the map and pointed down at a hill near the wall of the compound. "we can distract here possibly draw out more of the loyalists to this side, then you guys hit them from behind."

"but you'll be outnumbered and there are potential missing-nin in the compound"

"there's a forest behind the hill we can run a guerrilla campaign from there if need be."

"and what bout ma boys how will you tell who's who out there"

"we can give them a signal to show us or they could paint themselves with something beforehand"

Waraji thought for a minute, and otter-5 could see the five brain cells this guy had put in some serious work. "well, gotta lotta purple paint from renovations we a while back I can get the boys to paint themselves with it before the killing starts."

"Right… that works I guess" otter-5 looked to crow-4 who shrugged "what type of intel we have on the compound anyway?"

"its got basic defenses a ten-foot wall with shitty archers and shitty thugs inside, no offense waraji"

"Eh, none taken compared to you guys we aint shit, but you did forget bout Boris."

"Boris?"

"ye, he's this great big bear we caught few years back, we mostly kept him as entertainment ya know. fed em some slaves and such, make a fight and what not. They'll release em first sign of a fight though."

"I think we can handle a bear."

"ye at's what you think."

"Okay then well big bear aside you can expect hostages, but they're not on the priority list right now. I'd say the biggest threat out there aside from "Boris" would be maybe a few rogue genins in the mix, now I'm all for you doing the guerrilla campaign in the north, but it's up to you guys to decide."

They dispersed the camp was broken down and turtle-23 had joined them for a final brief good lucks were passed around and they departed for their OP's locations.

* * *

Crow-4 knocked on the door to the house and pink as otter-5 had called her answered without a care in the world, it seems he owed him a bowl of ramen. He ignored her stupid who are your questions and walked right in. "ah Kakashi Hatake what a pleasure to finally meet you" officially he had never met Kakashi in his life unofficially he had joined team one right at the end of Kakashi's ANBU tenure and spent his first month learning under the man.

"crow and I believe we have met before."

"really, when?"

"remember that old lady trying to cross the street?"

"Ah I do, I suppose you are right I have met you before well then, I guess it's a pleasure to be reacquainted."

"very much so."

The genin were stupefied at the ridiculous conversation going on in front of them

"ah, you must be the team seven I've heard so much about."

"you've heard about us?" Sakura couldn't believe it, they were already famous.

"I've heard how dumb you all are." Kakashi chuckled behind the ANBU, and the genin were furious.

"so are you staying for dinner?"

"I suppose that depends on what it is were having?" Kakashi and the ANBU move off towards the kitchen away from the genin.

"I can't believe that guy what a jerk, why do we get stuck with all the jerks?" Sakura was furiously red at this point.

"Maybe it because your for-head attracts them?"

"Listen here you, purple haired bitch!" Sasuke sighed it was moments like these where he questioned why Itachi didn't kill him on that night, He dogged a shoe.

Tsunami had scurried off when the ANBU had walked into the kitchen wanting to be anywhere but there at that moment, both men watched her go.

"so you guys must expect an attack soon."

"we expect Zabuza to come back tomorrow ya, the rest of the team is out doing some recon."

Kakashi knew that crow meant something else. With this small an island and with how many days it had been, the black-ops squad should have no need for a recon patrol, they would only be doing security patrols at this point.

"Well hopefully they don't have too much fun"

"I can only hope."

* * *

The next day team seven, and crow-4 departed for the bridge, at the twenty-eight-thousandth tic of the day crow-4 began to worry Zabuza should have been here by now. He flipped to channel eleven

: _rked. Proceed with plan:_

 _:roger, wasp moving group three into position:_

So the Wearhouse raid was going as planned tapping the left side of his mask he switched to channel eight.

 _:det… mo… left….: the static was not good._

 _:mo…:_

 _:con…..r…:_

 _:…buza…..:_

Crow-4 disconnected from TEAMCOM. And jumped down to Kakashi "zabuza's not coming, he's made contact with my recon patrol and I believe they have engaged." There was a shout behind them one of the bridge workers running up the bridge, the genin didn't even intercept as the man made his way towards the client.

"Tazuna, Tazuna" Kakashi intercepted the man

"whats wrong?"

"There's fighting at the main Wearhouse, I don't know what's going on, but my wife she's in there."

Crow-4 frowned behind his mask, why were civilians in the main Wearhouse he switched to channel eleven

 _:break right hit that genin on the roof:_

 _:moving:_

 _:Viper-3 be advised civilians are present within the compound how copy:_

 _:To late viper-_ 1: there was an explosion in the distance a fireball reaching for the sky

"oh god, hitomi."

"sensei we should go help them"

"negative" crow-4 interrupted before Kakashi could give a reply "what's going on over there is not your concern."

"how can you say that" it looked like sakura had really frown a pair of balls during this mission "how can you just let people die" crow-4 looked down at her

"as easy as it is standing here"

"sakura, despite the harshness crow here is right, that's not our mission Tazuna is our mission now I suggest you genin move him back to his house to protect him."

"but sensei!" this time it was Ami who looked conflicted.

"no, but's go to the house! Now"

"Where are you gonna go Kakashi?" Sasuke was alert enough to realize that Kakashi didn't mention he was coming back.

"crow's team found Zabuza and is engaged, I'm going to assist them on their mission." Kakashi looked to crow-4 for conformation and the man nodded. "now I suggest you four get moving before something bad happens."

* * *

They had prepped all night, moved into the northern position and gotten ready for the attack. turtle-23 had found the weakest point on the wall and at some point, during the night robin-28 had placed exploding seals on it. At the twenty-fifth-thousandth tic of the day, Viper-3 made contact

 _:Viper-2 this is lion:_

 _:this is Otter, send it:_

 _:phase three of operation tilde wave commenced:_

 _:understood lion:_

After six-hundred tics, Otter-5 looked to robin-28 "begin"

The northern most corner of the GC compound walls crumpled and blasted inwards under the force of a class-2 explosive, men and wood spread across the first fifty yards of the base. Turtle-23 darted forward into the center of the whole, robin-28 and otter-5 leapt over him landing just inside the wall. A man who had been shredded by the explosions charged blindly swinging his one arm at otter-5 who ducked and tripped the man who toppled over and didn't get up. A single bell started ringing in the compound, loud over the shouts of man there was a large roar on the southern side of the camp as waraji's men launched themselves into battle.

Then the mist came. The thugs didn't pay attention to the mist blindly charging towards the destroyed wall, in a chaotic charge

 _:robin:_ otter-5 ducked under a swing stabbing the man in the heart.

 _:sir:_ he leapt onto a man's shoulders and spun, around swinging his tanto taking several heads.

 _:detach from engagement move left, out of the mist provide support:_ he saw turtle-23 fluidly stop the hearts of three men and a women using his taijutsu

 _:moving:_ robin-28 leapt over a wild swing from a rogue samurai launching shuriken through the back of his skull

 _:CONTACT CENTER RIGHT:_ robin shouted _:ITS FUCKIN ZABUZA:_

Turtle-23 was smacked away with the broad side of a massive cleaver, and zabuza's shadow was visible in the mist for a few tic's before he flickered away. Otter-5 slipped into the mist, two can play at this game.

* * *

When they crept up to the Wearhouse it looked good guards were lax and there weren't very many of them. Lion-22 looked to wasp-12 who gave a thumbs up.

 _:Viper-2 this is lion:_

 _:this is otter, send it:_

 _:phase three of operation tilde wave commenced:_

 _:understood lion:_

Lion-22 switched channels _:wasp what's the sitrep:_

 _:Recon complete marking targets now:_ the blue tacks flicked on to his head on his HUD

 _:roger that wasp targets marked. Proceed with plan:_

 _:roger, wasp moving group three into position:_

surrounding the Wearhouse group one would take the left side entrance, group two would take the right and group three would take the main entrance, there was a spark of silence before they charged, with a war cry escaping the bandit's lips. "OH FUCK" the first guard lost his head to lion-22's tanto, the surprise attack cost the GC loyalists, five went down in the first initial rush and lion-22 met with wasp-12 in the center of Wearhouse. Wasp-12 ducked under lion-22's stab forward, the stab went over him plunging into the chest of a GC loyalist.

 _:break right hit that genin on the roof:_

 _:moving:_ wasp launched kunai into the rafters

 _:Viper-3 be advised civilians are present with in the compound how copy:_

 _:To late viper-_ 1: the rafters exploded, and it was raining metal and wood down on the battle. lion-22 blocked a frenzied strike from a GC loyalist and spun to dodge a swipe from a bandit behind him

"what are you doing!"

"we aint getten slaughtered by you gents after this."

The loyalist grinned "good help u-" his head was removed by the bandit.

"were taking all you lot here and now"

The battle got more dangerous for the ninja bobbing and weaving between GC loyalists and bandits.

Wasp-12 jumped up over a bandit summersaulting in the air to bring a kunai in to the man's throat and rotating the man around him to block a stab from a loyalist. Dropping the body which dragged the sword off the said loyalist, he crushed the mans sternum with a jab to his chest. An arrow entered wasp-12's shoulder piercing all the way through to its half way point using the momentum to spin he launched a shuriken back towards the enemy.

* * *

Crow-4 hit the southern border first holding on the top of the wall to get a good view before entering the fray, Kakashi landed next to him, sharingan blazing.

"what do you see?"

"No ninjutsu except for the mist on the opposite side of the compound, and I can't see into that"

"we'll not interfere with that, assist those painted in purple"

"Understood"

They sprung in high into the air crow-4 sent a volley of kunai and shuriken towards a flanking group of enemies and landed in a roll between the survivors bringing his combat knife up it streaked across the throats of two men and brought it to parry a downward chop, punching the man in the face sending the mans nasal bone rocketing into his brain. Senbon rained down on his position, drawing his cloak he raised up letting it absorb most of the hits. Feeling some of the ones that had pierced his forearm he looked on as the rest of the GC forces around him scattered, and a kiri hunter nin dropped landed down near him.

"you have no need to be here droplet" Silently she twirled some Senbon that he could see she had formed of ice before launching herself at him "fine, have it your way"

He kicked her hand up over his left shoulder, wrapping his arm around hers he dropped his knife into his right hand and went for a stab while rolling backwards hoping to use gravity to assist his kill. She kicked of the ground swinging over his roll and landed on her back, forming Senbon she blindly thrust it back at him, rolling to the left into a crouch bringing the knife to stab her. She dodged towards him curling into a ball, then kicked her feet out hitting him in the chest he landed on his back and she jumped on him Senbon ready to skewer him. Her chest opened up like a flower from Kakashi's chidori, blood sprayed all over crow-4, and Kakashi dumped the body to the side while offering him a hand up.

"thanks"

"I will never mention it" crow-4 laughed at the play on words.

Suddenly there was cheering. the GC loyalists were cheer and chanting "BORIS, BORIS, BORIS"

"what's a boris?"

"its apparently this bear they captured, they think its some beast of war."

There was a roar unlike anything they had ever heard a black shape plowed through anything and everything in its path, loyalists or their own forces it didn't seem to matter. men and body parts went flying until it crashed out of a ramshackle building next to them standing on its hind legs it stood well over sixteen feet it had to weight at least six-thousand pounds. It landed on all fours and roared at them

"FUCK"

* * *

Another explosion from the town made sasuke jump looking out the second story window he could see the smoke rising high. Footsteps came pounding up the stairs, and sakura slammed open the door, her face looked different like something had snapped inside of her.

"im going!" for a moment sasuke thought that, that was not sakura. Sakura was smart and hated getting dirty and was obsessed with him. she didn't disobey Kakashi's orders and blindly run towards danger. "are you coming?" it wasn't a question he realized this was an order.

"let me get some extra gear."

She walked down stairs "five minutes"

Ami looked nervous, and sakura looked as ready as she could before the took off to the village. At some point reinforcements from the GC compound arrived, not that the genin new this, and the bandits had made to get out of the burning Wearhouse, so the fighting had spread to the docks and was about to spill into the treats of the village.

"we can't let the fighting get into the village" sakura sounded so confident sasuke thought, she turned to him "can you hold that ramp there" she pointed to a ramp that lead up into the west side of town.

"sure, if you support" she nodded, and they were off. Already some men were making their way up the ramp trying to secure more room for combat and the high ground at the same time. Sasuke incinerated five with his first fireball. And landed in a crouch on top of the ramp, then they were on top of him two men swung at him high and low he jumped up into a ball using his legs to land on the blade going low to drive it into the ground. he kept crouched letting the high swing go over him he punched one man in the face and kicked off to kick the other one in the face too, a third man came for a stab while sasuke was in the air. three kunai for three necks and all hit. An ANBU landed in front of him

"what the fuck are you doing here"

"we want to help, we can help!"

They were interrupted by a five man charge up the ramp sasuke darted forward eager to show that he could help. Going for a stab he brought up a kunai yelling he sent it forward. His hand was grabbed by the front man and the one next to him reared u for a strike and sasuke was five feet away and the anbu was beautifully slaughtering them. Sakura landed next to him right arm soaked in blood kunai griped tight and she was shaking. Another ANBU landed next to them carrying ami, she was missing an arm.

"look what you fucking did!"

Both genin were stunned "I…we…"

"you weren't s'posed to be here." He tossed ami and sasuke who nearly dropped her. "get the fuck away from here and take care of your teammate." He spun deflecting an arrow and throwing a kunai away "GO!" lion-22 made coms with crow-4

 _:viper-1 this is lion:_

 _:send it:_

 _:the genin decided to assist one is critically injured:_

 _:Fuck ill see if we can send robin over now:_

* * *

Otter-5 decided that two could not play at the game of mist zabuza was thoroughly kicking his ass around the fog the only reason he was surviving was because the battle around the fog was too noisy for zabuza to truly hear him in the mist he rolled under another swing imbedding some shuriken in to zabuza who turned into water getting lucky on his dodge roll out he tripped on a body and felt zabuza's massive blade swish over head.

 _:robin this is crow: otter-5's insides froze, who was hurt_

 _:I hear you:_

 _:The genin team decided to interfere one is critical can you assist:_ otter-5 released an unknown breath he had been holding and replaced him self with one of his clones and winced at the memories of being bisected.

 _:turtle are you okay here:_

 _:ya im fine go:_

Robin-28 and turtle-23 had split from the mist fight to engage the rest of loyalists from behind when they had realized they had been betrayed, otter-5 got the pleasant job of holding off zabuza until help could come back.

Otter-5 leapt forward in a one-handed cart wheel, feeling the kiss of a sword on his back he left a explosive on the ground as a parting gift. Hearing it go of and a curse of pain he launched back where he had previously been tanto ready to take a head. He abandoned his charge to doge roll a vicious punch that disrupted the air and kicked out with his legs feeling resistance he capitalized spinning on his hands he spun up landing his legs on zabuza's shoulders using the momentum to drag him down with his body weight. On the ground drawing a kunai, he went to stab him through the top of his head. the man caught it with his hand using his superior strength to force the blade back, there was a brief struggle before zabuza bit his leg. startled and in pain, he slipped, and the blade entered his chest.

* * *

Crow-4 had debated telling Kakashi about his genin. That was before Boris had created a crater in the ground and tanked a chidori, that and Kakashi was out having been smacked away plowing through a small shack. Now it was just him and Boris. The bear charged tired of the lull in the fight, and crow-4 was gonna try some thing crazy taking wire out he leapt up on top of Boris, the bear crashed through a building and crow-4 almost lost his ride. He tied two kunai to each end and stabbed them in to the sides of the bear. That plan didn't work he though while looking up at the sky before rolling away as Boris made another crater in the ground where he had been laying. Nothing really seemed to penetrate its fur which meant he should damage the insides which meant turtle-23. He took off Boris chasing right after him smashing through anything in the path until he hit the northern end of the compound.

 _:turtle you there:_

 _:I'm here what do you need:_

 _:some internal damage:_

 _:what:_ they crashed through the lines of the men and turtle-23 saw exactly what he meant

 _:that's not a normal bear:_

The no shit was implied as crow-4 flew past him as turtle-23 took a stance and prepared. Spinning to the left his hand graced out taping Boris on the side of the head. The bear dropped dead immediately sliding a good ten feet for good measure.

 _:go help otter ill finish up here:_

Crow-4 took of into the mist tracking otter-5's chakra signature he sprouted his clan's technique.

After the kunai had been forced in to his chest otter-5 had been forced on his back a wounded and bloody zabuza pulled out the blade and made to finish him before he froze and dropped the blade otter-5 didn't hesitate to catch it and drive it into the man's head, before shoving the body off him.

 _:I owe you one, fuck:_ he had made to get up only to fall, breathing heavy. Crow rushed forward kneeling down he held otter-5's head up. _:took a kunai to the chest:_

 _:shit:_ crow-4 grabbed his blow out otters blow out kit ripping it open he searched through it finding a chest seal he took of otters-5's armor and slapped one on his front to plug the hole. Flipping him over he looked at the back no exit wounds just a long cut which was good now he just needed robin… shit. Picking up otter he made to move back flashing through all nearby coms

 _:otter is down robin were are you:_

 _:just reaching the village out skirts made, contact with genin team:_

 _:How bad is the genin:_

 _:only missing an arm, and she's already got a tourniquet on:_

 _:How long is the run:_

 _:three-zero-zero tics:_

 _:meet me half way:_ he started moving away from the battle

 _:what's he got:_

 _:punctured lung, I already put a seal on it but he's not breathing right:_

 _:got it:_

 _:turtle can you check on Kakashi as well:_

 _:sure thing boss:_

* * *

He met robin-28 at a river crossing on the far side from the battle. He laid otter-5 down on the ground and robin set to work, ripping off otter-5's mask revealed his face to the genin that had chased after her while carrying their teammate, "what the fuck, he's so young"

"how about instead of standing there like fucking lemmings you do something productive and fucking help me" robin-28 shouted at them before moving to listen to otter-5's breathing, sakura nelt down next to her.

"what do you need"

"take this, stand here and give me what I need" Robin-28 passed her the med bag she pulled out of a scroll

"Right" opening it up Sakura felt out of her league, hand me the needle-D it's got a red cap on it, it should be on the top of the bag. Sakura found that easy enough. Robin-28 unscrewed it and pulled out a long needle before feeling around near the top of otter-5's chest then stabbed him with it once she found what she was looking for, withdrawing the needle leaving a whit thing in there was a loud hiss noise that emanated from it. She patted him down looking for more blood.

"combat gauze" Sakura struggled for a second "its on the bottom" she found it tossing it over Robin didn't hesitate to start stuffing it into the deep cut on otter-5's back. "give me the tarp tied to the bag" unfurling the tarp they laid him and ami on it "give me the bag." Robin-28 dug through it for a bit before removing two IV sets handing one to Sakura with a "just do what I do" and Sakura watched her preform it on otter-5 and didn't think she could do it on ami

" I…I cant"

"your gonna have to if you want your friend to live," Robin-28 said as she hooked up the tubing and the bag. Quickly and without thinking, Sakura tried and imitated as she could she knew I needed to go into the vain and that was about it. Robin-28 squatted next to her. "good job" was all that was given before she took over the rest of the setup. "we need to evac them to some were safe for now, the client's house will do"

"im headed back to the compound can you handle things here."

"I got this"

* * *

thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed. drop a review or pm me for any questions comments or hate

with the whole last scene, I was kinda tired of medicine in naruto being to just through medical chakra at the problem and seeing how not everyone can use that I wanted to try and incorporate some actual combat medicine into the situation.


	7. Chapter 7

_:teamcom:_

 _;sign language;_

Chapter 7

Otter-5's back was sore, and his chest hurt. Rolling out of the bed he dropped on to the floor into a push up he stood, feeling the bandages wrapped around his chest loosen he decided to tear them off. Along with the Bolin seal on his chest. Looking at the small fading scar on his chest. where he had been impaled. Stretching his arms up his back tightened and spasmed with pain, finding a mirror he saw a long neat scar going diagonally from his left lower back to his upper right shoulder.

"you're awake!" he spun embarrassed at getting caught with his guard down he saw the client's daughter tsunami holding a tray with some soup on it.

"how long was I asleep?" she set the tray down and made to clean up the bandages he left on the ground.

"just since yesterday, you looked really bad when they dragged you and that girl in, are you sure your okay."

"im fine, and what about my team?"

"well, I don't know much about the masked ones. But there is one downstairs, along with the rest of your friends."

"thanks" he tossed on his sleeveless undershirt and began to leave.

"don't forget your soup?" he came back and grabbed it.

Downstairs he could see Robin-28 attempting to repair some of his armor on a table. Kakashi was sitting on a chair attempting to read a book with a swollen black eye, Sasuke and Sakura were miserably eating some breakfast.

"otter what are you doing up?" Robin-28 got up from her position by the table to move to his side.

"Relax I'm fine"

"you shouldn't be you got stabbed, I saw the hole. you don't just recover from that in a couple of hours." Sakura interrupted them

"well, you do if your me," he said shooting her a grin

"but"

"Sakura don't be rude" Kakashi came to his rescue "otter its good to see you up and about"

"likewise" he sat wincing on the way down "weren't there three genin" Sasuke and Sakura got silent, and Kakashi shifted in his seat.

"she's asleep upstairs, she was under a lot of stress yesterday when she lost her arm."

"is she gonna be alright?

"she's gonna be fine, this isn't the worst injury I've seen nin walk away with worse injuries"

"that's good then"

His mask slapped into his lap courtesy of Robin-28 "crow wants to debrief." He nodded sliding his mask on he tapped into coms.

 _:this is otter, radio check:_ five clicks signaled that his coms were up.

 _:otter this is crow:_

 _:send it crow:_

 _:switch to channel four for operation tidal wave debrief and a new operational brief:_

 _:what new operation brief:_ wasp-12 butted in

 _:nothing you need to worry about for now wasp:_ otter-5 switched to channel six

 _:you here:_

 _:yep:_

 _:good, now Gato of Gato corps has now turned control of the company over to Waraji and GC is now called waraji international:_ there was a click on their comms and otter-5 changed to channel 12 _:those nosy bitches. Anyway, waraji has begun reforming WI to suit our needs and an ANBU intelligence squad is there to assist so our primary objectives for the OP are complete.:_

 _:I here a but:_

 _:exactly, gato escaped into fire country with around nine-zero loyalist, intelligence puts him near crater city:_

 _:so he left early, that's to far for one night which means there's a mole:_

 _:there is but that's not our concern at this time, with the completion of the primary objectives this land has moved from threat level bravo to threat level delta, meaning our secondary and tertiary duties are complete as well:_

 _:I'm gonna take a guess and say that Intel came with a mission to hunt Gato before he can start to claim Konoha outed him:_

 _:you would be correct, Intel is spotty on what type of forces Gato has with him and what type of forces he's managed to pick up while fleeing. We are to set out at the four-three-two-zero-zero tic of the day, and proceed on search and destroy mission code-named operation house cleaning. Report to WI compound for operation brief with the others in one-eight-zero-zero tic's:_

 _:understood we'll begin moving out:_ otter-5 broke comms and stood stretching again and noticing there was not nearly as much pain as before he looked to Robin-28 who had finished with his armor and was now doing inventory on her med bag.

"Robin, we're headed out in six-hundred tics, start getting ready."

"sure thing." She began to pack up.

* * *

When they arrived at the WI compound otter-5 could see that they had yet to finish cleaning up from the previous days battle. What was left of the WI forces were busy running around piling bodies into stacks to prepare to burn. They found the rest of their team in the center building of the compound having acquired a room to themselves lion-22, turtle-23, and wasp-12 appeared to be getting some much-needed rest. There were voices in the next room over, otter-5 went to join them while Robin-28 plopped down on a couch and passed out.

"ah, otter-5 this is otter-22 from intelligence" crow-4 pulled him into the conversation around a table in the center of the room. "we were just discussing our operation for the search and destroy." Pointing to a map on the table "border and defenses picked Gato and about one-hundred others moving into the Hokage province of fire country near crater village, so we can expect more of a rocky terrain for this one."

Otter-22 spoke up "here is were the fun starts, yesterday afternoon genin team eight was sighted by a chunin patrol heading to crater village on a C-rank village mission to crater city its self, meaning we have three clan heirs in a zone that's been declared threat level alpha, viper team primary mission is the assassination of Gato your second primary objectives are to get genin team eight out of the threat zone. secondary objectives are securing the silence of any person gato might have spoken to during his escape by any means necessary."

"right, so" crow-4 clapped his hands together drawing their attention "will split otter will lead viper-2 which will consist of himself robin and turtle. I will lead viper-1 hunting Gato's forces until we make contact by that time viper-2 will have completed the other objective and gotten team eight out of the zone."

Wasp-12 looked to Robin-28 "what do you think going on in there?"

"why do you gotta be so nosy"

"s'cus I like knowing things" the door opened and otter-5 stepped out.

"we have a mission"

"but side boss we're not even done with this one."

"side boss?"

"ya, you're second in command so your side boss."

"I'm not even going to try and understand, anyway this OP is over, and we have a new one. Search and destroy near crater village. We leave in 600 tics briefing will be on the way."

* * *

When they hit the outskirts of crater city they split up and otter-5 found himself hunting down a genin team. They moved around on the cities rooftops.

 _:do we know what their mission is:_ turtle-23 questioned.

 _:just a secure scroll delivery, but we don't know who too. We should check with all major leaders first if its secured, anyone know any:_

 _:negative:_

 _:I don't know any sorry:_

 _:turtle do you see any chakra sigs:_

 _:I see a few genin level:_

 _:if you see any clumped together lead us there:_ dropping back otter-5 let turtle-23 take point. They moved around for three-hundred tics before turtle-23 dropped down in to the street. They appeared in front of team eight startling all of the genin, turtle-23 and Robin-28 flanking otter-5

"team eight?"

"yes, can I help you" Kurenai otter-5 recognized from their brief their pretty dark-haired jonin sensei moved in front of the genin. Otter-5 tossed her a scroll telling them to leave.

"your mission canceled on orders from HIGHCOMM we will escort you out of the area as you proceeded back towards Konoha"

"uh-"

"hey, who do you bastards think you are you can't tell us what to do!" the genin who could only be an inuzuka shouted at them. Only to get smacked in the head by his sensei.

"kiba don't be stupid in front of the ANBU, I apologize for my student." She gave a small bow.

"it's fine, now if you would follow us we will escort you away from the area"

"what, sensei we can't just leave the mission like this!"

"kiba, listen to the ANBU if they want us to leave it means something is going on that we shouldn't be here for so get moving."

With some more complaints from Kiba they made their way out of the city. Heading slightly north-west towards Konoha.

* * *

 _:Viper-1 this is otter:_

 _:send it otter:_

 _:We have located team eight and are escorting them out of the conflict zone:_

 _:good work viper-2, we have yet to locate Gato and his forces so be careful:_

 _:understood:_

Turtle-23 signaled to hold, stopping and almost getting run over by a Hyuga genin. otter-5 signed to turtle-23 _. ;what's wrong;_

 _;contact center right, something blocking vision;_

 _;roger; shift left nine-zero degrees for eight-zero paces;_

 _;roger;_

"Kurenai we need to move left there's something in fron-"

"CONTACT LEFT" the shout came from Robin-28 as she tackled the aburame genin behind her before the tree she had been standing on was obliterated by series of lightning blasts. A flare popped up in front of them, along with shouts of men preparing for a fight

 _:Viper-1 we are in contact with unknown hostiles flare is up at the location, do you copy:_

:we see you viper-2, on our way:

Otter-5 picked up the Hyuga genin and jumped away from the rock he had been on, as it was annihilated by another round of lightning. Dropping her to the ground he spawned five shadow clones, two went off to the nearby shouts to hopefully make a surprise attack the other three formed a protective circle around the Hyuga.

:Robin, turtle get the genin to my clones then engage the unknown's I've got the lightning user: they appeared two tics later robin-28 dropping off a somewhat calm aburame while turtle-23 dropped a barely contained Kiba to the ground before flickering away.

"Oi! We can help you know" Kiba looked ready to fight him instead of the enemy "you can't keep us here were genin not kids" there was a roar in front of them as twenty men charged forward, and the genin froze. Otter-5 launched a kunai forward and as it sank into the front man it detonated sending bits of him back and killing five others, lightning flashed from his left and he spun out of the way into the group of thugs while pulling out his tanto. Two were killed before they could recover from the explosion one's head rolled away and the other clutched at his bleeding throat on his way down to the ground. Otter-5 parried an overhead swing from a thug and caved the mans face in with his fist. Grabbing the mans sword he launched it towards where he could feel the chakra build up for another lightning attack. Ducking at a high swing his sword flashed as he eviscerated the man who had taken a swing. The remaining eleven men looked less confident at their attack two took off back towards were they most likely had camp he pulled a kunai out in his free hand and darted forward sliding under another high swing he implanted the kunai in the mans stomach, popping up he got behind another man as the explosive attached went off killing the rest of the men.

An explosion a little ways away let him know that the rest of Viper team had arrived at whatever camp was over there. Lightning lanced out and hit the body he replaced himself with, _that's multiple attacks from a distance_ he thought probably a sniper style fighter, moving so that he was closer to where the attacks had come from, he only found tracks, replacing himself with one of his clones he felt the phantom pain with the memories of getting electrocuted.

"what do you see?" he looked to the Hyuga. She formed a seal and stilled. Another clone was destroyed otter-5 launched a couple of explosives that way.

"he's moving fast on your left"

Otter-5 took of, now seeing the forest shimmer as the attacker lost his nerve and abandoned stealth. Following the path of the shimmer he prepared his chakra while still moving thinning it he took a breath and launched a wind bullet at the attacker. A flash of light and a shout of behind you and there was a searing pain in his shoulder from his rushed doge a kunai stuck out and he came face to face with his attacker. A missing Kumo nin sneered at him as he ran through hand signs. Otter-5 beat him to the killing blow and launched a kunai drawn from his arm guard into the missing-nin's face. The body didn't seem to know what to do like it hadn't caught up with the brains death before he fell over, pushing the kunai in further when his face impacted the ground.

 _:otter we've captured Gato his forces are routed eliminate any you see on the way to the camp before we start hunting:_

 _:understood:_

Making his way back and only killing four more thugs on the way to collect the genin and move to the camp.

* * *

Kiba inuzuka was tough, he could take anything and anyone. He puked on the ground when he saw the camp or the remains of the camp. He told them it was the smell, not the headless corpse draped over a broken tent, not the man crawling away with his insides dragging behind him, and certainly not the man screaming for his mom. He looked over and Hinata didn't appear to be any better having fallen to her knees. shino was practically in the same boat as him dry heaving into a bush. Taking a deep breath, he straightened and took a step and felt a squish don't look down, don't look down, don't look down, he looked down and saw the intestine he had stepped on, and threw up again.

"what are you going to do with him?" the paused as the genin threw up again

"nothing you don't need to worry about. Now, otter-5 will escort your team away so we can begin our operation." The finality of the statement and otter-5's firm hand on her shoulder told Kurenai she wasn't getting any of her questions answered. As they approached her genin team otter-5 stepped in front of her

"anything you saw here today didn't happen"

"What! What do you mean this didn't happen." Kiba loudly gestured to all of the bodies around him "this happened" it was softer now.

"no genin it didn't, and you better remember that this didn't happen."

"but what about-"whatever question the inuzuka had was silenced by the sight of the Robin-28 and Wasp-12 moving into the former camp and begin silencing the injured. "oh my god"

"now we need to get you all out of here there is a lot of work that needs to be done and I don't wanna leave my team for too long"

Having finally escorted the genin team out of the combat zone otter-5's return to camp was signaled with a minor disturbance of the air.

"ah, otter you're here good. We've gathered intel on the secondary objective" crow-4 handed out a slip of paper to everyone on the team "these slips are a combined list of everyone Gato has talked to in the last 48 hours and their locations. everyone has their targets spread out and secure their silence. Otter-5 skimmed the list which only had five names. his first target was a Yoshino Tanaka he idly noted that the next couple of names had the same last name and tried not to think about it. their location had them in crater city its self.

* * *

He had traced them to a house near the center of the city it was just past sixty-fourth thousandth tic of the day and the family seemed to be just finishing their dinner. He waited for another seven-thousand tic's as the kids were laid down to bed he moved.

The lights flickered out and Yoshino new something was more wrong than just an electrical problem the air seemed colder and the room was darker, her husband stood grumbling about the lights and bad electricity and moved to head to the basement to flip the breaker. Five minutes and he didn't come back up, Yoshino knew it was over. When her childhood friend gato had appeared on her doorstep she knew it was over. For him to appear on her doorstep after so many years and talk about how he had moved nearby because of his latest business venture failing which she knew to be the take over of the country of wave, she knew he had pissed off the wrong people she knew her friend well enough to see that he was nervous and on edge. The shadow next to her moved and then nothing.

With the easy part out of the way, he began down the hallway. Moving silently otter-5 opened the first door. the oldest of the children was maybe twelve. he stood over her bed as she slept, his hand shook as it held his combat knife, then it descended into her throat, his other hand moved across her lips preventing any type of noise as she struggled for thirty tic's before stilling, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. Withdrawing the knife he moved out of the room across the hallway into the last two kids rooms, twins about six years old, otter-5 froze one bed was empty he didn't think as he ended the one in the rooms life with a stab to the head, and rushed out of the room searching for the last kid.

"mommy" fuck "mommy are you okay, mommy wake up" otter-5 walked into the living room and demasked.

"everything alright kid?" said kid spun startled at the sudden noise.

"who…. who are you?"

"I'm one of your mother's super awesome ninja friends" he smiled and pulled out a kunai to show the kid

"do you know what happened to mommy?"

"she's just taking a nap kid let her rest. Do ya wanna see a neat ninja trick?" the kid nodded Naruto created a little water ball in his hand, drawn from a cup on the table, kneeling down and gesturing the kid to come closer. She did with bright eyes showing her awe "here" he moved her hands on top of his so that she held the ball in her had "feel the weight there kido, doesn't it look nice" his shaking hand moved the kunai into position to enter her skull "look here kid I'm gonna teach you a real nice trick" a tear slid down his face as the kunai penetrated the flesh. Gently lowering the body to the floor Naruto cried for the good of Konoha he told himself.

He stared at the burning house from the shadows for a good long time watching the flames attempt to kiss the sky. Before he put his mask back on

 _:this is Otter, objective complete:_

* * *

thank you for reading drop a review for any questions comments or concerns or just pm me


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Mommy, mommy wake up." The girl stood in the flames of the house, gently pushing on her mom "mommy please"

Naruto woke up to a pounding head ace and someone pounding on the door to his barracks room. It was the end of viper team's week off after their mission, which had extended into an extra month while they tracked down every last one of Gato's forces that had escaped. Getting up to move to the door he heard wasp-12's voice.

"OI! Side boss wake up, we're going out." Naruto opened the door glaring up at the taller Reo.

"I was asleep"

"and now you're not, side boss come on we still gotta go pick up Yuuto."

"fine come on in while I get dressed."

Reo moved into his room with a whistle followed closely by Yui and Naruto realized the state of his undress and quickly scrambled to get at least something on aside from just his underwear.

"damn side boss you're living in style here." Reo moved throughout his room poking and prodding at naruto's things "didn't know they treated the officer's this nice" it was a basic room to Naruto more like a decent one-bed hotel room than anything, and the only color was a tiny cactus he got from a training trip to suna.

"it's not that nice of a room" Yui snorted and it made his stomach tingle.

"I have to share a room half this size with three other people"

"ya, side boss you don't get to complain"

"reo you don't get to either you're so close to becoming an officer anyway that what you say doesn't count."

"but I still live in the shit hole"

"if you two are done close to ending the conversation are you ready to go."

"yep let's get moving." Reo set down his cactus and Yui stood up from his bed.

Naruto followed Yui and Reo as they casually moved throughout the village towards the Hyuga clan grounds. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he'd been out and about, aside from the one time when he had first met the team, and it seemed way more crowded than last time.

"is there something going on?" Yui turned around to look at him.

"ya, the chunin exam finals are in three weeks."

"I've never been."

"how? Aren't you a chunin?"

"the lord Hokage promoted me after operation fireball and I gained my mask"

"you're a lucky bastard side boss, I lost the others in my genin team during mine"

"really? It's that harsh"

"it can be sometimes."

They didn't have time to collect Yuuto. their tattoos burned then pulsed twice signifying their team leader mantis-1 had summoned them. Without a word or sound, the three disappeared into the shadows of a nearby ally without anyone noticing. Three ANBU flickered out of an ally way startling a group of civilians.

* * *

When they arrived at team one's headquarters, mantis-14 was waiting in front of the ops center. "you're here good, there is a team meeting in the main briefing room." He handed them mission packets "don't open them until the full brief" they nodded and proceeded to the briefing room.

Otter-5 had never seen all of team one gathered up like this. the entire division of forty ANBU was spread out throughout the large room, each one grouped up with their own squad in tight little clique's. otter-5 didn't see crow-4 but he did find lion-22, and they moved over to him.

"any idea what this is about?"

"no, I don't. I figured crow woulda told you something maybe"

"rise" the few sitting ANBU rose, and all of them were at attention. "sit" the division did tension sprang through the air as Mantis-1 and all of the squad leaders behind her marched out to the center of the room and popped to parade rest. Mantis-1 stood behind the podium as a projector screen dropped behind her and the squad leaders.

"yesterday at around the seven-hundred-thousandth tic of the day the special jonin known as Hayate Gekko was found dead in sector seven of the village," a picture of his body appeared on the screen. "He was killed using a wind blade evidence shows some of his genetic material was taken and his sword was also removed from his possession, further investigation of the body by a member of Yamanaka clan lead to knowledge that suna and the newly created village of oto are planning an invasion of the village" shock and anger ran through the black ops division, "further information revealed a spy in the village, the knowledge of the invasion is to remain a secret. Operation BUCKEYE has been created to combat this invasion, and as the black ops squads of the village, we will be the knife opening the enemies up for a counterattack during what we will call operation SPLIT, which will be the invasion its self. Your squad leaders have your specific mission assignment briefs and you should all have your mission packets as well. Go forth and burn the winds into nothing." All forty members of team one disappeared without a trace.

In their squad room the members of team viper sat solemnly around their lounge before crow-4 walked into their room carrying a whole lot of extra mission packets. "what's our mission" Robin-28 sounded angry and eager.

"calm down Robin were not going to war yet, but I managed to snag us a few good OP's that make up buckeye and only two for split" crow-4 sat in one of the chars tossing all of the packets on to the table before picking only one labeled sandbreaker and tossing it to otter-5 "that one's yours for operation SPLIT you can read it later, for now, we're gonna work on this one." He picked up one labeled crunch "we're investigating someone that Intel suspects is a contact in the village for the spy, we only know the name Takashi, and his location is supposed to be in sector nine of the village we are to do a sweep of the area and take the contact into custody, we leave in three-hundred tics."

* * *

They surrounded the house. even on a bright day with shinobi darting above them and civilians bustling around below them, no one had any idea about the squad of ANBU taking positions around a nondescript house in sector nine. Otter-5 saw crow-4 enter the house through the second-floor window, his mask's HUD was set to track crow-4's movements throughout the house, and he registered the green tick on float across peripherals as he watched the back door to the targets house.

 _:otter, turtle, come inside. there's no one here. Robin, lion, and wasp spread out robin see if you can sense anything:_ there were five clicks of acknowledgment before otter-5 moved from the shadows and into the second story of the house.

He came into what was obviously the bedroom, crow-4 had upturned and opened everything he could in search of the target he moved throughout the house combat knife in a reverse grip in his hand. The sink in the bathroom he passed was on.

 _:otter we're in the living room:_ he moved downstairs to see crow-4 and turtle-23 standing in a trashed living room.

"the sink was on when I was upstairs"

"I know which means he left already but we've been looking through the sector for three-thousand tics now"

"Turtle do you see anything?"

"nothing it's like looking at the sun as I stand in it, I can't see outside the building from here either."

"so they definitely have someone in OP center or Intel, or he has a sensor outside that picked up on us."

"do a final sweep then will try and get some trackers in here."

They dispersed and otter-5 headed back upstairs, gliding through the rooms he went back into the bathroom and looked around this was where the target was right before he found out he had guests. He shut the water off, and immediately heard the whistle of wind sliding through a crack. Leaving the room, he looked at the back wall. Too thin for a extra room, maybe a tunnel. Moving back into the bathroom he pulled out his knife and jammed it behind the mirror pulling it fell off with a clatter, revealing an opening descending tunnel just large enough to crawl down.

 _:otter you good up there:_

 _:ya I'm fine just found something interesting:_

 _:what:_

 _:I found a hidden tunnel, its in the bathroom, I think he turned the faucet on climbing into the tunnel I'm gonna go in:_

 _:understood will be right in after you:_

Otter-5 reached the bottom of the tunnel. He could hear crow-4 and turtle-23 making their way down the tunnel, his HUD flashed giving him better sight than just the darkness. Otter-5 drew his knife and advanced down the rest of what could only be a bunker at this point there was a clang from his right and his target attacked screaming a war cry otter-5 ended it with a single block and a punch to the face.

 _:viper team this is otter I've secured the target:_

 _:roger that otter, we're almost too you:_

As turtle-23 dragged the target back up the tunnel, crow-4 and otter-5 began searching through the bunker tearing through cabinets and the one desk. collecting papers and scrolls into neat stacks.

 _:Robin contact Intel, get a team over here:_

 _:understood:_

 _:lion, wasp help turtle escort the target to TI:_

 _:moving:_

Robin arrived with the intel squad eighteen-hundred tics later, and with grumbles about the tight climb down from the intel squad, and the bunker was starting to get a little crowded for otter-5's taste and when crow-4 told him to take the next bag of scrolls up to the intel department and that he was dismissed when he did so. otter-5 had never been so happy, he noted that the top of the tunnel had been demolished to make more space to move in and out of the chamber. And when he crawled out Robin-28 was there to greet him

"were still gonna try and go out after we finish here you up for it"

"ya sure, it'll be nice to get out"

"sweet we're meeting at yakiniku q at the seventy-thousandth tic of the day or later depending when we get out."

"cool ill be there."

* * *

Naruto arrived at yakiniku q a few hundred tic's early and found out that he was the first person to arrive and also that the place was absolutely packed.

"how many do you have coming," the cute hostess said with a bright smile.

"I think uh... four through six maybe" he scratched his head

"your lucky, we have only one table left to fit that many," she grabbed a menu again smiling brightly and walked him to a table. he sat there for all of ten tics before someone came up to him.

"hey your that ANBU from wave right" naruto almost had a heart attack at the sight of the pink haired girl. and quickly noticed discreet eyes watching him.

"ahhh...no, I think you have me mixed up with some on, I've never been to wave." she looked confused and a tad hurt.

"but-"

"ah, Naruto I didn't know you were bringing guests." Naruto was happier to see Riku here than when he saved Naruto from Zabuza.

"no" he sent a look to Sakura " I didn't."

"i..um... im sorry to bother you."

Riku pulled up one of the chairs on the opposite side of Naruto. " I didn't know you were coming."

"eh, I got away from the wife for a bit."

you're married!" Riku chuckled.

"ya I got a three-year-old too"

"no shit"

Yui arrived stunning naruto before she sat next to him "whats up guys"

"We were just talking about my kid"

"Oh ya, uh... Ichigo right" Riku nodded as he pulled out a photo and handed it to Naruto, Yui scooted next to him to get a closer look, and Naruto felt warmth at the contact

"aww he's so cute"

"Hey guys sorry were late, had to break Yuuto out of jail"

"I was not in jail Reo, I was at my house"

"but it was on the Hyuga grounds, which is like jail." yuuto just grumbled and sat down.

when they finally departed for the night and got back to the barracks. naruto took the time to finally open the mission packet labeled sandbreaker that crow-4 had given him.

 _to: Naruto Uzumaki aka ANBU agent otter-5_

 _from: ANBU intelligence and operational high command_

 _the following is a security operation designed to inflict the most amount of damage possible on our enemies at the lowest cost. agent your primary objectives are as follows the assassination or capture of the one-tailed jinjuriki Gaara of the hidden sand village. your operation is critical to the completion of operation SPLIT. your ROE's and plan of attacks are secured in a seal on the back of this page. failure is not an option you have full operational control during the period of this operation any Konoha shinobi you chose to recruit for this mission are, by orders required to assist you unless they have a Sierra level operation running as well good luck and may you burn the winds._

* * *

thank you for reading the chapter I hope you have enjoyed the story so far please drop a review or PM me if you have any questions comments criticisms or concerns


	9. Chapter 9

_:teamcom:_

 _-_ thoughts-

I do not own Naruto

Chapter 9

Otter-5 watched the chunin exam finals from his vantage point on top of the participant's box. The rest of his team was hidden away in the village waiting for operation SPLIT to start. He was alone up here waiting for whatever signal suna would use to start their invasion if there would be one at all. The second round of the finals was starting with his target, Gaara facing off against the inuzuka genin from the cleanup mission.

otter-5 withdrew the spear given to him for operation SANDBREAKER as the genin began their fight. it channeled his wind chakra better, give him better cutting power to break Gaara's sand defense. He wrapped three class-1 explosive notes around the shaft of the spear, the armory would be pissed about the loss of the weapon, but it was better than letting a jinjuriki rage around the village. Now he would just take a quick nap before the invasion and he would be good.

He cast off the genjutsu just in time to witness the stands break into chaos as 'civilians' shed their clothes and became suna and oto chunin and jonin. Otter-5 leapt off the participant's box and prepared his technique 'heaven piercing drill'. firing his chakra through the spear, sharpening it and spinning it, the wind chakra running through the spear started to become visible as he reached his peak. Falling and picking up speed with the help of gravity he thrust his Technique down towards his target. It shattered the first sand wall that had appeared above Gaara and cut through the already damaged sand armor without resistance and continued through the jinjuriki's chest cutting the sternum apart and came out the front of the target's body and sank into the ground. Otter-5 jumped off Gaara, towards Kiba tackling him to the ground and covering them both with his cape he released his hold with his chakra from the explosives. The ground shook and shrapnel cut through his cape and pelted at his armor.

"w..wa…what" Kiba stuttered out as otter-5 got up, and off of him. dragging the genin up.

"your home is being invaded." He answered gravely "go find your jonin sensei she'll have orders for-"otter-5 was blasted away by a gale of wind. He bounced along the ground before impacting the wall.

"I'LL KILL YOU" otter-5 had just enough sense to clumsily dodge a charging suna genin. Rolling out of the way a war fan embedded itself where he had been moments ago, he continued rolling when it was followed by a kick that created a crater and next a wild stab that implanted a kunai into the ground, spinning on the ground he knocked the girl off her feet and rolled back on top off her, a kunai flashed into his hand and he brought it down towards her chest. Her hand darted up intercepting the blade with her palm. he tried to not pay attention to the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes, as he leaned his full body weight on the blade, she brought up her other hand and began to push it away, he withdrew another kunai with his free hand and brought it up to her neck.

The chaos of battle spread. Eiji Suzuki was a Konoha chunin off duty, and when the kunai started flying he didn't hesitate to launch into the fray with what little he had on him-around five kunai and eight shuriken-after breaking the genjutsu, and launching himself across the field to where he knew his best friend was sitting he was tackled midair by an suna ninja he tumbled across the ground for a bit before springing up on to his feet backpedaling to avoid rabid strikes from the shinobi across from him he never noticed two shinobi grappling on the ground until it was too late, he tripped and fell taking a stab to the chest he felt nothing more.

"lady Temari are you okay" she clutched at her leaking throat nothing but weak gasps escaping, in the movement it had been cut, not enough to kill her quickly but it would kill her if it was not taken care of. Shaking she felt a chunin drag her away from her brother's murderer. She watched his masked face as he shook his comrade off his body without a care in the world. Another chunin joined in dragging her as they passed the crater that had been her brother, his foot had managed to survive the blast and was still implanted were he had been standing just a few minutes ago. Baki joined her next already looking haggard from the fight he had just left. They took cover and hid just outside the arena and one of the chunin began to patch her throat up.

"they knew about the invasion" Temari had never seen her sensei seem so defeated "this was not a trap for them it was a trap for us."

"what do we do sir?" the chunin next to her was shaking, as he watched jonin and chunin from the hidden leaf seemingly merge into the surrounding forest on their way towards the heavy combat in their village.

"we make it back to our lines in the village, maybe we can still salvage this."

* * *

Otter-5 moved away from the exam arena the fighting had mostly stopped nearby, the only major fight being the battle between Orochimaru and the third Hokage. Operation SPLIT hadn't started yet as the two invaders hadn't extended far enough into the village, that meant he couldn't go to his team for fear of giving away their position.

"NO, PLEASE, NO, NO"

He scanned for enemies making sure to flank around the noise before darting in. ready to strike at any enemy in the area. Otter-5 only found a blond-haired girl cradling a body "SAKURA PLEASE" she sobbed out. Otter-5 could now see the lifelessness in the pink-haired girl's eyes and the total stillness of death.

"you need to be quiet" otter-5 squatted down next to the crying genin. He pulled out a small black scroll from his utility belt. "there will be time to mourn later" as gently as he could he took the body from the shaking genin, he unfurled the scroll and laid the body onto it, there was no smoke when he sealed the body. "we need to move."

"I…I…"

"this is not the place to freeze," he knelt to next to her and unmasked -protocol wouldn't save lives here- she looked at him, eyes wide and tears leaking down her cheeks. Her mouth moved up and down unable to release any sound "other people are dying, I need to go help them, pull yourself together and get moving." He grabbed her arm as he stood, pulling her up and put his mask back on, before taking off towards where he knew the jonin corps would have set up a command post.

Ino followed behind the young ANBU, sakura's last scream still tearing its way through her mind like a knife. An explosion to her right made her stop. "what?" the ANBU looked back at her "why did you stop?"

"aren't we gonna go help?"

"were gonna get orders first and not interfere in a fight we know nothing about."

"but"

"no we continue on." He spun and moved away killing the conversation, another explosion made Ino jump. She scurried after ANBU. Five minutes later and he stopped.

"we've got a trail."

"what?"

"move right hide in those bushes over there. You take the first shot"

"r..right" Ino moved away into the bushes and pulled out a kunai with a shaking hand. She watched the ANBU vanish without a trace or disturbance in the air. Not even two minutes later four oto chunin landed in a semi-circle around were Ino and the ANBU had last stood. They stood around and she couldn't pick up what they were saying but one squatted down and started fingering at the tracks. -so that must be their tracker- she thought, not wanting to let him track her she formed her family's technique with her hands.

She blinked when she found her self now looking at the ground, the man she possessed was screaming in the back of her mind. She pulled out one of his kunai and pretended to dig around the tracks in search of something.

"so Dachi where are they?" she cleared her throat and stood preparing herself, a bead of sweat rolled down her new face. She moved, the kunai entered the man's stomach in a messy stab, and she watched shock roll across the man's face before anger settled in, it wasn't a killing blow. "WHAT THE FUCK" she released the technique and blinked when she was back staring at the oto squad the man she had stabbed was falling backward into the dirt and the other two were about to skewer the man she had possessed. They had him on his back as he screamed for them to stop, saying that it wasn't him. The ANBU landed on one of the men that was about to kill his own teammate. Driving a tanto through one man and into the other. Leaving the tanto and pulling out a kunai before driving it into the final standing oto ninja.

Ino made her presence known as the body dropped to the ground. The last injured man was attempting to crawl away. "wh…what are we gonna do with him" the ANBU pulled his tanto out of the two bodies and handed it to her.

"you're going to kill him."

"w..what..why."

"I'm not dragging an injured enemy around a combat zone." He scoffed

"why do I have to do it?"

"who stabbed him in the first place."

"but"

"I'm not gonna argue with you, do it." With a huff and a show, she stomped off to the crawling man.

"p…ple…please don't" blood leaked down his chin and tears fell down the sides of his face. "I...I" her hands shook as she stood over him. The ANBU stood next to her silently judging -she could feel it- she looked down, the man's mouth moved up and down, silent pleads escaping only his eyes. She gripped the sword tight and brought it up to end the man's life. It squelched as it entered the man's chest. Something landed on the man's chest, and Ino realized that she was crying.

"you did well." She jumped at the ANBU's voice.

"I've…. I've never"

"don't think about it just move on, but you did do a good job."

"I…thanks"

 _:otter this is Robin:_

 _:send it:_

 _:rendezvous at forward command post-DELTA as quickly as you can:_

 _:understood:_

"follow me…..uh" he scratched the back of his head

"Ino" he nodded and stuck his hand out.

"otter-5"

* * *

They made it to the forward command post within the hour, and Ino huddled to otter-5's side as they moved through the command post. bloodied chunin and genin gave them a wide berth as they moved to the center of the command post. Three ANBU were waiting around inside the main post two were covered in blood and one looked like she had been hit with a water technique. "uncle shikaku?"

"what are you doing here Ino?" he looked at her questioningly

otter-5 interrupted "I picked her up outside of the arena, she was separated from her team" he reached back and pulled out the black scroll "this is Sakura Haruno" otter-5 handed it over to shikaku who took it with care.

"Ino, Asuma should be near command post CHARLIE along with your team, there's a team of chunin headed that way in five minutes they're on the south end of the command post." She nodded and made to leave.

"good luck Ino." She stared up at the otter mask.

"I will." She left after that and otter-5 could feel his teammates stares at him.

"anyway" shikaku coughed getting their attention, and the room turned tense. "as of right now operation SPLIT is being considered a success. enemy forces are currently routed or are trapped within the village walls. ANBU team's seven and eight are currently moving throughout the surrounding area of the village eradicating all enemy forces they can find. Heavy combat ANBU units are burning through the surviving suna and oto forces within the village." He paused to pull out mission packets. "Team one of the ANBU corps is being tasked with the beginning of the counter-offensive against suna forces, otter-5 as team leader of black ops unit viper team your squad will carry out a guerrilla offensive against the city of Irezumi." There was a commotion as a scared looking chunin rushed into the room. Otter-5 moved to intercept his tanto against the chunin's neck. "relax otter"

"sir….sir the Hokage is dead…you have the operational command" shock and terror ran through the room before they squashed it like a bug and burning rage wormed its way through the ANBU.

"we will depart immediately sir" rage burned through him, the Hokage was dead and otter-5 wanted nothing more than to tear through everything.

"otter…otter are you good?" he blinked the rage stayed slithering just underneath the surface lion-22 was in front of him. "otter are you okay"

"ya, Im fine. we should go through."

"well were in no condition to move out now otter, robin's barely standing and turtle almost bled out earlier, we need to rest."

Shikaku made to get their attention "viper team take two day's and then head out on your mission"

"But sir"

"if you wanna go and fight so bad no one is stopping you, but your team is hurt so what are you gonna do?"

Otter-5 took thirty-five tics to control his rage before nodding "I'm sorry' we'll head out in two days"

Shikaku nodded "good report to command post ALPHA before you leave in forty-eight hours. In the meantime, get your team to medical."

"yes sir"

Outside the command center was chaos injured had been dragged to the command post and dropped of, genin and chunin ran around carrying supplies and papers to combat squads that had popped in for orders or just a break, and the sound of combat was ever-present behind the rest of the noise. Viper team made space near a supply crate for rest. "so what happened?" otter-5 looked at the three other remaining members of viper team crow-4 and wasp-12 were missing. They all looked defeated and otter-5 felt it with them. Lion-22 was the first to speak up.

"wasp got hit as we rotated out with bug team. He went down into the streets and was cornered by some chunin. Crow went to the rescue and got caught in a water dragon" a picture of crow-4's kid flashed through otter-5's mind "Robin caught a piece of it too. Wasp was dead before we got around it, and we couldn't find anything of crow." The rage was making its way back to the surface of otter-5's mind. He didn't know them too well, but he couldn't say that it didn't hurt.

* * *

Ino finally found her team on the other side of the village, it had been rough getting there, the chunin team had lost one person to a trap an enemy had laid in a hasty retreat and they and engaged two different enemy squads trapped in the village. covered in cuts, bruises, and blood. She collapsed near her teammate Shikamaru, who had plopped himself down in a destroyed building with what looked like the rest of her graduating academy class.

"where have you been all day?"

"I was separated at the arena and ran into an ANBU who took me over to DELTA then I came here with a chunin squad."

"sounds like a rough day" her other teammate choji had somehow managed to find a bag of chips even in the battlefield

"it was….." sakura's face flashed before her

"um…Ino wasn't Sakura with you?" Hinata didn't look too dirty in fact as Ino looked around she noticed that most of the genin didn't look too haggard except for her.

"She…she was, but…but she's…didn't." Ino wiped tears away from her face "she's…fuck" Ino punched the ground and something cracked. "fuck. Fuck. FUCK." Each word resulted in larger cracks before she stood up her bloodied hands clenched, and she kicked a piece of rubble on the ground "FUCK" she landed on her knees and cried.

* * *

"I wish the enemy would hesitate to shoot when they see me, but you can't expect humanitarianism on the battlefield."  
― Carlo Zen, 幼女戦記 1 Deus lo vult

* * *

I've finally gone back to work and the Stanley cup finals have started as well but I will be updating once a week most likely on the weekends. thanks for reading drop a review or pm me for any questions comments or concerns.


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own Naruto and I apologize for any bad grammar or spelling errors.

Chapter 10

The entire country of wind was on edge, their shinobi's grand invasion had failed miserably, and the land fire had sent no messages, or declarations, just the ANBU. They didn't know that they were there, but they knew that they here, and the ANBU of the hidden leaf village were notorious for their brutality and ruthlessness in and out of combat, more so than even the hidden mist village. So, when bodies started appearing just two days after their failed invasion all over the country, the citizens of the land of wind new Konoha had come.

Otter-5 drew his tanto in preparation to attack the merchant caravan moving to the village hidden in the sand. Despite carrying vital supplies like water and food. They were guarded by only a squad of six genin and a single chunin.

 _:Otter this is Robin, viper-2 is in position:_

 _:Understood Robin proceed with the plan:_

There was a woman's scream off in the distance and four of the genin ran off ignoring the chunin's orders to stay. Lion-22 and Robin-28 would take care of them. Turtle-23 appeared behind the chunin and a palm on the man's back ended his life. Otter-5 landed on a genin popping her head on the ground with his weight and decapitated the genin next to her.

The merchants were scrambling around, most attempting to flee and a few brave souls moved to defend their doomed caravan. Otter-5 launched a kunai into the throat of a charging merchant and stepped forward ignoring the body as it fell with a gurgle the other merchants stepped back as he descended on them.

Robin-28 and lion-22 returned as turtle-23 killed the last of the merchants with a palm to the heart. "all of the genins are dead. What now?" the rest of the squad turned to otter-5.

"make it pretty."

Mao Goto was a regular girl she wasn't too pretty, but she wasn't ugly, she worked for a supply company out of Irezumi city and on Tuesdays like this one she brought some supplies for the men that worked in a quarry nearby. So with a smile on her face and a goodbye to her mother she was off for the hour-long walk to the quarry half way there she smelled something, she didn't know what it was, but it was terrible. Coming around the dune it was worse before she finally cornered it and dropped to her knees. The caravan from her company was here and they were strewn across the area. The genin girl she had given a smile and a good luck to this morning had her head exploded against the cart, one man now unrecognizable had been flayed and pinned against the cart next to her. And… and… she screamed.

* * *

Naruto watched a chunin patrol rush by the window, probably in response to the caravan they had attacked. It was the fourth one in six day's they had wrecked, and the city's security was being stretched thin investigating the murders and disappearances that had been happening in the area. There was an explosion in the distance signifying lion-22's successful bombing of the main markets. Naruto heard the shouts of men and women scrambling to both flee and investigate the explosions. Asahi returned a couple hundred tics later.

"what no-"there was a second explosion killing a majority of the first responders. "good work, Asahi"

"Thanks. Where are Yui and Yuuto?"

"Getting the supplies at the drop point for our final assignment."

"were getting out of this blasted country."

"Ha, only for a little bit, if I had to guess we're gonna be coming back here pretty soon." Asahi shrugged and plopped down on the bed next to the desk Naruto was sitting at.

"You sure we're gonna go to war."

"sand kinda killed the peace option when they sided with Orochimaru."

There were a series of three knocks followed by five knocks, viper team's basic door entry code, followed by a pulse of their seals. Yui and Yuuto entered the hotel room both carrying a duffle bag.

"Naruto what the hell is in these bags." Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned.

"It's the supplies for our final objective I didn't realize that it would be heavy."

The gear was laid out and viper team knew why. Full metal samurai armor was in front of them, not traditional lightweight, silk cord and thin metal plates, but the armor designed to take damage. full steel plate with leather straps and painted black it was intimidating to look at. Naruto frowned.

"I initially planned for me to wear it but I won't be able to."

"it should fit me." Asahi stroked his beard, "but what's it for."

"the final objective before we rotate out is three parts. One is for Yui and whoever wears the armor to put." Naruto drew out the word put and moved to a table clearing it and pulling out the mission packet and pulled out a picture of a weaselly looking man "this man in to the position of chief security officer of Irezumi city. Right now its this guy." He held up another photo. "Hansuke Wada, he is a competent tactful man with good morals." He pointed to the other man "this guy, Koji Nakamura is a trash bag fool that doesn't know his right from left. He's currently the second in command of the city's security, why this is I don't know or care, but we can eliminate Hansuke tonight while the other group goes to the Kurobane prison and releases everyone." The rest of the team shifted uncomfortably, and Naruto pulled out their map of the city. "Viper-2, which I guess will be Asahi and Yui will infiltrate the city center disguised as a minor noble and her bodyguard sent from her father to deliver a message directly to Hansuke, you will kill him and make your escape to here" pointing at a small building near the center. "it's a building owned by waraji international. We have full access to the building including it underground drug tunnels that lead out of the city." He pointed to a massive building halfway between the outskirts and the city center "this is where Yuuto and I will strike. Our contacts within the prison gave us a key in to the prison and all we have to do is blow the doors to every cell without getting caught and hightail it out to here." He pointed to park nearby the prison "there is a festival going on here releasing the prisoners into that area will give us enough cover to make it back to the WI building. Now are there any questions?"

"How do we know that the prisoners are gonna do what we need them to do? I mean most of these guys might be reformed or just here for a bull shit reason."

"Our contact in the prison has been making sure to rile more of the prisoners, and they also gave the information that an entire company of criminal ronin was there as well. any others?"

"Why do I have to wear this stupid armor?"

"Is a girl with a shinobi bodyguard trustworthy?"

* * *

Several thousand tics later and Naruto along with Yuuto were preparing to release the prisoners. After getting the confirmation that Hansuke was dead and that Koji had taken charge Naruto and Yuuto had snuck into the prison disguised as guards and had been discreet as possible while preparing to open the prison like a can. naruto detached radio crackled in his ear.

 _:I've finished by wing what about you:_

 _:placing the last charge now, meet at the central guard station:_

 _:understood:_

Ren Yamada was just regular guy, he had a decent job at a prison, worked nine to five, he had a great girlfriend his best friend worked with him in the next wing over. Today at muster he had drawn the short straw and got what they called cage duty, all he really had to do was walk around the different levels of the cell block, he was just coming back around to check in at the central guard station when he saw blood splatter against the glass, that was not good. He was about to start sprinting up to the station before there were a series of bangs around the cell block. He spun around just in time to see the cell next to him get blown open by a small explosive. The man inside was a serial rapist who never attended the reform classes. Another bang and the cell next to that one opened a yakuza hitman, more bangs followed until it was eerily silent, like a calm before a storm. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up, the rapist was grinning at him "you lost kiddo."

Naruto flipped as many switches as he could without setting off alarms, already shouts were spreading across the prison. Guards and prisoners attempting to control whatever situation they could. Naruto flipped a green switch and the regular lights went out and the emergency red lights went on. He released his chakra hold on the far wall of the prison and it went up into dust from a class-3 breaching explosive and moonlight poured in. prisoners stared out unable to truly believe what was happening before one brave soul move forward towards the light, then the next one and soon after that it was a stampede of men and women racing towards freedom. The guards dropped like flies unable to withstand the hoard of people desperate for freedom without proper. There was a smack on the station door and an angry prisoner glared at them through the glass. Yuuto looked to him "I think it's time to go." Nodding Naruto sent another pulse of chakra and ducked under a desk before the ceiling collapsed above them. Leaping out they came to the wonderful sight of a hoard of prisoners running into the center of the park festival and causing mayhem.

"well shit we can't go that way" bells started tolling and the few shinobi in the city and the rest of the city guard began to scramble around. They could see movement from their rooftop view heading their way. The two undercover ANBU jumped down into the crowds of fleeing civilians attempting to blend in, as a group of the city watch came rushing around the corner and charged the fleeing prisoners. They ducked into an alleyway only to find a two men holding down a screaming woman. Ducking back out they attempted to move back into the crowds, a suna shinobi stood on a cart shouting orders into the chaos, the rest of his team were attempting to control the flow of civilians by grabbing as many as they could and pushing them into an alleyway they had secured. Naruto discreetly singed to Yuuto.

 _;split, you go right, meet at the rally point, I'll distract;_

Yuuto flashed him four fingers and a fist signifying he understood before dropping back into the crowd. Naruto looked to the shinobi on the cart, the man was pointing in his direction and Naruto couldn't hear him over the screams, he pulled out a class-2 incendiary explosive from a hidden pouch on his cape, he crumpled it up and dropped it hoping they would ignore it as two shinobi made their way in his direction. He sent a pulse of chakra through the seal on his arm to warn Yuuto, he released his control on the note, he dove uncaring if anyone saw him as the suna ninja yelled for him to stop.

The earth shattered under the force of the explosive. Fire and dirt rained down on the square, bodies of the civilians landed around him and an arm smacked him in the face. The two suna shinobi were now just charred husks laying in the street, the cart had upturned and crushed the suna chunin on top of it bisecting him with the railing on top. Naruto was one of the first ones to scramble up and sprint away from the scene, screams of the injured and dying filled the area as he ran into another alley rounding a corner he checked himself for injury, feeling nothing he moved back out ready to flicker away.

"HEY STOP" a suna kunoichi ran at him, her uniform told him she worked as one of the chunin stationed at the city. "are you okay kid?" he really didn't wanna deal with this.

"ya, I think so. I'm just trying to get out of here this place is crazy!"

"do you know where your parents are."

"they're at home." He looked down trying to act shy. "I snuck out, I just wanted to see the festival."

"shit, uh... why don't you come with me, I'll take you to a safe zone we've got set up you'll be able to go home from there."

"No, I can find my way from here."

"kid I can't just let you go alone, not with all this crazy running around." She came up next to him and bent over and Naruto was almost distracted, but he saw an opportunity. The kunai entered her throat without an issue, shock and disbelief spread across her face before it went slack with death and she fell over. He withdrew the kunai and wiped it clean on her uniform, watching a tear escape her dead eyes and trickle its way down her cheek.

Otter-5 appeared at the end of the WI's drug tunnel feeling a pulse on his seal he sent one back and three more ANBU materialized around him. Robin-28 handed him a scroll. "we found this in Hansuke's room, it was a letter from the suna advisory council and the jonin corps. We didn't read it but it looked important."

"good work team, we're headed north towards the land of bears, we'll cut through there, earth and mushroom country before coming back in to fire country, move out."

And it was like they were never there.

It had been two weeks since the invasion and Jiraiya still didn't know what to do, his sensei was dead by one of his teammate's hands, and his other teammate was off in fuckfuckville doing who knows what. He spun in his chair, he would rather be anywhere else, but here in the Hokage office. With Tsunade gone and Danzo being an old fuck and the other jonin either too young or not wanting it, he had been left as one of the only candidates left. A quick vote by the jonin corps and the advisory board and he was sitting behind the old desk attempting to run a damaged city. Looking out of the window he could see the activity going on in the village. Workers ran around still fixing the damage from the invasion two weeks later, the markets were still open even in the waning hours of the day, the bars would be full soon, with people drinking to forget or to remember the things that had happened, and he would miss it. There was a knock on the door. Before his new secretary came in if there was anything he did like the job it was her, Jiraiya shot her a cocky grin. "what can I do for you."

She ignored his looks "sir Mantis-1 is reporting with an ANBU squad." He sighed, no one ever wanted to have fun here.

"send them in" she nodded and left.

They were suddenly in the room, five black nightmares stared at him. They knelt down in submission, he would never get used to that. "sir" the one with the mantis mask stood and he could tell she was a looker under that armor. "ANBU team one unit A1-P2-S2 codenamed Viper team has returned from their assigned operation SANDSTORM" she produced a packet from her black cape and handed it to him. "otter-5 will report" otter-5 stood and Jiraiya was a little taken back by his height.

"my lord, viper team was assigned operation SANDSTORM immediately after the completion of operation SPLIT. We were tasked with the sabotage of vital wind country infrastructure and morale in and around the city of Irezumi. During the operation, we completed all eighteen primary objectives along with all thirty-two secondary objectives. And we also secured vital information towards the eventual war effort." There it was, if it was one thing Jiraiya hated most it was the fact that his village wanted a war, they were practically begging for it, and he hated it. He skimmed through the after-action report of the mission, taking note of all the atrocities and crimes the ANBU team had done while in sand country. He hated the killing they had done and he hated the killing they would be doing soon if his advisors got what they wanted. Jiraiya gave another sigh and tossed the report on to his desk.

"good work viper team, you all get two weeks leave. all of you are Dismissed." The informality of his dismissal made every ANBU hesitate before one by one they disappeared. Otter-5 was the last to disappear, leaving Jiraiya alone in the office of his student and his sensei.

* * *

 **Training days**

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he came face to face with rat-2's mask "get the fuck up!" he hesitated.

"WAKE UP, GET THE FUCK UP!" Naruto jumped up and he was not back in his barracks room, dropping off the top rack of his bunk bed he almost landed on another person in the chaos.

"WHY THE FUCK ARNT YOU DRESSED, HURRY UP!"

There were twenty ANBU pouring into the squad bay and there were only fourteen other people who were non ANBU that Naruto included. He searched for a his clothes. "HURRY UP" Naruto searched his rack finding a lock on it broke it, and he was blindsided by rat-2. "WHO TOLD YOU COULD DO THAT" he scrambled up ignoring rat-2's yelling he popped open the rack. Finding a set of armor and a blank mask, he began to put it on. The other trainees began to follow his example. One beat him to getting dressed. "GET OUTSIDE, MOVE." The man rushed out Naruto was hot on his heels. They both got clotheslined by an ANBU waiting for them outside of the barracks door, Naruto laid in the snow staring up at the blue sky, a tiger mask leaned in front of his view, "GET THE FUCK UP!" a fist cracked the ground where he had been laying.

 _:all rooks this is Rat-2 your objective is to reach the peak of the mountain in the next twenty minutes, failure to complete the objective will result in you being dropped from the program the last person there will be dropped from the program:_

Naruto sprinted off towards the top of the mountain as the rest of the rookies began to make their way out of the barracks and run up to the top as well. A cat masked ANBU launched her self from the shadows, he ducked underneath he lashed out with his fist as she sailed overhead, catching her in her stomach she was propelled off to the side and he began running. An explosion went off thirty meters ahead of him sending snow, ice and rocks, down towards him. Acting fast he brought his chakra fourth. He what he didn't have in control he made up for with the amount of chakra he could use at once, overpowering a wind technique it shot out from his lips to the enlarging avalanche, and blasted it apart. The sound and sight of their trap getting destroyed drew more of the ANBU towards his position. Burring under the snow as far as he could get he felt the change in pressure every time a ANBU took a step on top of him. There was another explosion in the distance followed by a rumble and the ANBU took off eager to beat the recruits.

Peeking out Naruto didn't, see or feel anyone's presence nearby. Jumping out of his hole he began to make his way towards the top of the mountain. The sounds of heavy combat were dying off, turning into the sporadic spurts of violence, and blood the further he made it up the mountain. Another rookie landed near him and attempted to flag him down.

They took cover near an overhang, Naruto realized he didn't recognize the man from the barracks he was in.

"You got any weapons?" the man questioned him

"no."

"Fuck, alright. You willing to work together?"

"sure, if you can keep up."

The joke was lost when four ANBU appeared bellow them rushing to their position. Leaping over the overhang Naruto melted the snow around him as he drew it up for a jutsu, he flashed through the well-practiced hand seals and spat a water ball at the approaching ANBU. The man next to him sparkled with a lack of control before the lightning he channeled rushed out and hit the water ball in the air. The two rookies ran as the ANBU attempted to dodge electrified water. Kunai and shuriken rained down near them, Naruto felt the sting of a blade on his arm, and the man cried out as his own leg was pierced through by a shuriken.

"FUCK!" the man crashed into a rock bouncing off and back towards the ANBU who snatched him up. Naruto didn't look back as he vaulted over another overhang pushing wind chakra through his hand he let it go using the momentum to make him jump higher and the power behind it sent more snow and rocks downward. He could see the top now and it was surrounded by ANBU, swords were drawn, and chakra prepped, he ducked behind a rock to try and form a plan of action. A group of four rookies ran out in an attempt to penetrate the defenses. Furious combat erupted around him as two more rookies jumped from the opposite side, Naruto took the chance leaping over his rock he summoned enough water nearby to create the only large attack that he knew, the storm upheaval dropped from the sky with the might of a stamped, crashing onto his side of the mountain, slush and rocks went every were, ANBU ducked and ran for cover as their position was annihilated by the rush of water. Naruto darted forward as soon as he canceled the technique, he reached the summit at the sounds of combat picked up again.

Rat-2 sat on a rock at the peak, watching the spreading battle as more rookies and ANBU poured into the area. "congratulations rook-1." He turned to Naruto now Rook-1 "you have fifteen minutes to make it back to your barracks." Rook-1 nodded and jumped back into the fray.

* * *

A1-P2-S2= ANBU team1 platoon 2 squads 2

for the training days if anyone is confused I have multiple teams living in squad bay barracks if you don't know what that is, just picture boot camp.

if you enjoyed, leave a review or pm for any questions comments concerns. if you didn't like it, leave a review or pm for any questions comments or concerns.


	11. Chapter 11

I do not own Naruto.

 _:teamcom:_

I apologize for any grammatical errors

* * *

The preparations for war was unlike anything he had never seen before, standing in the special operations center of camp sarutobi, Naruto watched various chunin and genin scramble around the tents and buildings that made up the camp. Jonin stood in front of their platoons of chunin and genin giving orders and briefs, supply genin ran around delivering equipment, while their counterparts the chunin messengers delivered vital orders and intelligence.

Shortly after his leave the country of fire had silently declared war on wind country one day it had been a tense peace, and the next leaf shinobi were pouring over the river country border towards the land of wind in an effort to blitz the enemy's defense's a well-prepared enemy stopped the advance shortly after their blitz, lines had been drawn and trenches had been fortified. Heavy warfare with a lack of mobility creating a stalemate in momentum. This is where fire country's wartime doctrine would shine.

During wartime, fire country showed why it was considered the country to avoid during a war. their ability to adapt to nearly any situation they dropped all pretense of relaxation and disbanded their general forces and adopted a superior rank structure with organization and chain of command while leaving the individual the ability to make decisions beneficial to the mission. boasting thirteen shinobi and samurai divisions of about three thousand each. Each division was branched into ten regiments, each regiment into platoons, each platoon into squads. The ANBU had been deployed throughout the divisions, his own squad was deployed with first division fifth regiment in the Taika province of fire country.

Naruto turned back into the spec ops tent, his nine fellow squad leaders were milling about waiting for whatever brief they had been summoned for. A short man entered, his aged face gave him a permanently grumpy face, "standby!" the slouched looks and disinterested looks of the ANBU squad leaders disappeared as they rose not erect or relaxed perfectly in the middle. A taller man entered a red patch on his collarbone told them he was the CO of the first division.

"relax" they all squatted or sat on whatever was nearby reassuming their lazy, seemingly disrespectful positions, the shorter man seemed bothered. The CO stood at the operations table in the center of the tent "word just came from HIGHCOMM tomorrow we invade sand country." He paused to let the news settle on them "first division is tasked with carrying out the amphibious invasion of the sunagyu province. This divisions goal is to take the capital of sand country, Kazedma city. The current plan is to start the invasion here." He pointed to the tip of the province on the coast. "is here a major military installation called Kaba base. This will not be your job, further inland we have four major targets that need to be secured as we attack the base, to secure intelligence from reaching our enemy." He made marks on the map "here at a recon outpost, and the rest are bridge crossing for the Okan river."

Naruto snagged the mission to the recon outpost that had been carelessly laying on the table. the other squad leaders groaned in disappointment at losing the better mission, a small scuffle for the remaining mission and they all left not even bothering to wait for a dismissal from the commander.

* * *

The landing boat lurched up and Ino almost threw up, a large chunin down the row from her did, sending it on to the deck, the boat reached its peak and dipped down sending the vomit sliding across the deck weaving around her boots and dragging its smell with it, it reached a drain at the front of the boat, she swallowed the bile down again, she gave herself a pat down in her seat. Easy access kunai, check combat knife, check, utility belt with gear, check, supply pack, check. She had done this a few million times in the past few days. After the announcement of war, she had been whisked away from her genin team and reported to her platoon where she had attended a short training camp followed by an immediate deployment to camp sarutobi. Some of her other genin friends had gone through the same thing choji and Shikamaru were in the north towards the land of sound. Kiba was in the first assault of sand country.

Her new squad of twelve had been loaded from their much larger carrier ship into a smaller landing boat propelled through the water by chakra. it would drop the roof off and drive its self on to Kaba beach. There was a thunk above her then more followed, the boat vibrated roughly and pitched on its side sending people crashing before it righted its self, more impacts, noises, and vomit. Her side seemed to be pelted with a lot of something that she tried not to think about.

A small beam of light pierced the boat and a man named Riichi screamed as he fell back, there was a hissing noise, then everyone screamed someone jumped on the body and there was a slightly muffled thump and Ino's face was splattered with blood, another light pierced the boat followed by another hiss and more screams. The roof shot off allowing Ino to catch a glimpse of an iron filled sky before she was thrown from the boat.

She hit the shore and rolled in the blooding waters for a few meters before coming to a stop, she flinched away from a kunai that landed in front of her face. She popped up limping on her left leg she looked for anyone from her squad. She saw fire, Sachi her friend ran screaming towards the ocean past her, the boat she had been on was burning, only screams seemed to escape the wreckage, kunai landed near her as more landing boats hit the shore men and women poured out onto the beach, many were cut down as they left the boats. Ino ducked to the ground to avoid getting shredded by a fuma shuriken. She crawled forward to try and reach any type of cover, a girl was next to her yelling for her to move up the beach and a shuriken buried its self in her eye-popping the back half of her skull off, she collapsed on top of Ino. She squirmed her way from under the fresh body and moved to run towards a small sand dune on the beach. It went up in a rain of flames and iron kunai.

More bodies piled onto the beach and more fresh people arrived to replace them, Ino pushed on finally reaching another small dune that hadn't been destroyed in the rain of death. "don't hide there!" the sound came from her right just as a scorpion busted out of the dune. Her knife was flung from her hand as soon as it was drawn, the tail swung down in an attempt to crush her, she rolled to the side landing in the remains of the sand dune, a pincer snapped in to high stabbing into the dirt above her, she brought a kunai up and into its joint joint in a lucky stab. Ino released her chakra hold on the explosive around the handle and tried to bury her self as best she could, the heat still seared her back burning away at her light uniform, the scorpion screeched before popping away in smoke.

She lapsed in her concentration of the battle from the pain and an explosion almost ripped her apart. On her stomach, she crawled to the sand dune towards where the sound of warning had come from. Kunai and shuriken wiped past her furiously, wind rocketed around from giant fans the sand shinobi were wielding up on the beaches bunkers. The five-foot gap between the two dunes felt like five miles, an arm reached out and dragged her behind cover a man gave her a concerned look "are you, all right?" all she could do was nod no as he shouted in her face, his hand glowed green with chakra and Ino thanked whatever gods were out there for the luck she had been given today.

The battle was spread up the hill sand shinobi fighting furiously to not lose ground and leaf shinobi seemingly unable to give up despite the mounting loses already making breaches in their enemy's defenses. Ino grunted as the medic slapped chakra medical tape on her back it's healing properties already relieving the pain. "Ino right? we're gonna get you out of here." Five ANBU crashed into the dune from the direction of the enemy their armor cracked and bloodied, Ino recognized one as otter-5. He seemed to stare at her for a bit before shrugging.

"can you use you families techniques?" he shouted at her she paused for an explosion to go off.

"Ya." She added a nod too. He masked moved between each of the other members of his squad before he tossed a small bundle at her.

"put this on." She didn't hesitate to strip her ruined genin uniform off and pulling the dented ANBU armor on, one in a robin mask moved to help her.

"you can't take her she needs to be evac'd!" otter-5 turned to the medic.

"fuck off." Robin finished tightening the straps on her armor it seemed to conform to her body or collapse where it needs to, she finished putting on their ANBU team one's famous black cape when the one in the lion mask handed her an owl mask.

"But…I…. " Ino hesitated, she knew the risks, there had been a brief class during the academy on careers that you could take as a ninja ANBU was once you're in, you are in until you are dead, or they release you which rarely happened. The thought of not taking the mask was crushed by a scream that reminded her of Sakura. She grabbed it from lion's hand and smacked it on to her face. Robin grabbed her arm and it burned for two seconds, she noticed a paper slip from robin's fingers and admired the new tattoo for three seconds.

 _:owl-30 this is otter-5 radio check:_ she felt her hear and her mask for anything to click. _:top right corner of your HUD use your eyes to select channel fourteen:_ she fumbled for a few tics struggling to use her eyesight scroll down.

 _:this is….owl-30 uh.. I can hear you:_

 _:we'll work on it, follow us, and welcome to the dark side:_

Owl-30 rushed after them as they traveled along the beachhead bobbing and weaving through the chaos of battle, a formation soon took up and they gave her a run down as they traversed the combat zone. _:listen up owl, we have a vital objective to complete in the next ten-thousand tics:_ she eyed the small timer on the bottom left corner of her vision it was currently just under the twenty-eight thousandth number and steadily rising every second. She nodded in understanding _. :good now there is a small recon outpost twenty miles from here, movement will be at an advanced pace but not sprinting you'll take third. If you have any issues make sure you say so:_ they all seemed to stare at her a few tics went by, before she realized they were waiting for her to respond.

 _:uh….okay:_

They hit the edge of the landing zone, the ferocity of the battle not dipping one bit, if anything it seemed to be getting worse with the third and fourth waves of leaf shinobi landing on the beach sand shinobi were actively charging leaf positions and leaf shinobi were beginning to break enemy lines. The edge of the landing zone was practically destroyed, someone had set of a large water technique turning the beach into a mud pit men and women of each village engaged their counterparts in vicious CQB. VIPER team attempted to skirt the edges of the fight dodging enemy ninja and various traps set up along the way, before they broke out and up on to the hillside that had been sand countries first line of defense, owl-30 could see Kaba base of in the distance, its imposing walls bristled with armed shinobi and samurai, ready to take on the world.

From her laying position, Owl-30 could see the smoke rising in the distance as Kaba base was assaulted, the larger explosions reached her ears with muffled cracks. VIPER team had taken to laying in the tall grasses of the sunagyu province's savanna. They faced inward in a circle looking past each other to cover their views and to prevent an enemy landing in the middle of them without them knowing.

 _:owl you good:_ Robin-28 smooth voice cut through the sounds of nature and combat.

:i…uh, I think so: she shifted positions attempting to get rid of the small scorpion that was attempting to creep up on her. _: I've just never done anything like this, and I'm not really trained for this type of stuff:_

 _:you'll be fine…mostly, just follow our lead and do whatever we tell you to:_

 _:thanks, i:_

 _:we need to move:_ otter-5's voice crackled through the channel _:get into traveling formation delta:_ the crawled through the grasses until owl-30 was laying in between robin-28 and tiger-32, otter-5 raised his right hand and motioned it forward and the took off into what felt like a sprint for owl-30.

* * *

Fourteen-hundred tics later and VIPER team was overlooking what looked like a very large Acacia tree, to owl-30 that's all it did look like, turtle-23 was relaying some type of information to Robin-28 who was writing it down on a small notepad with neat handwriting. Tiger-32 seemed to be drawing a map of the area with lion-22. She and otter-5 were on watch he was watching their rear while she observed the outlying area of the supposed recon outpost. She idly flicked another scorpion away it sailed a couple of feet before it hit the ground and popped in smoke.

"Oh fuck!"

The rest of VIPER team looked at her in surprise from the exclamation. "owl-30 what the fuck are you doing."

"were being watched, it's the scorpions!" She barely had time to get the warning out before their position was demolished by owl-30's second massive scorpion of the day. It thrashed around as it dug its self out of the ground they were laying on. Scattering VIPER team around the area. sand shinobi leaped out from various hiding places.

Owl-30 landed on her back and hissed in pain from the barely healed burns being picked at. A sand chunin landed on top of her and a kunai already being brought down to stab her. Tiger-32 landed on top of him, having been launched up higher into the air, trapped under two wriggling bodies and feeling the bite of a knife near her shoulder. she used a free hand to withdraw a kunai and sent it into the chunin's upper chest. There was an audible hiss as the boy's right lung lost all its air, he gasped and rolled over a tiger-32 popped to his feet and helped her up.

"thanks." All tiger-32 got to do in reply was nod before he was tackled by a raging jonin. Owl-30 ducked under a female chunin attempting to do the same. She used a foot to trip the chunin and pushed a kunai through her sternum.

:o _wl get to the tree:_ robin's voice sounded even and controlled even in the heat of combat. _:we'll...:_ the comms crackled out as an explosion went off fifty meters to Owl-30s right. Her legs and lungs burned with exhaustion as she dashed to the tree. ducking and rolling under a swing from a blade-wielding chunin she slid a few feet on the ground and brought her hands up to from her family's most used technique.

She blinked the confusions of rapidly transporting herself into a new body, the exhaustion was gone and the chunin's chakra was full and moving rapidly through his body. Taking out some of his explosives and placing a chakra hold on them she taped them to the new body and rushed towards the massive scorpion running around the battlefield. the other sand shinobi didn't realize something was wrong before it was too late, she released the hold and the explosives sizzled, sand chunin shouted in anger and the scorpion screeched as she released her family's technique. The burn of tiredness returned as her conscious returned to her body. The man she had taken control only managed to scream once before his body erupted in flames, the surrounding area was scorched, and sand shinobi were sent flying. The scorpion was blown apart its insides were vaporized, and its hardened outer shell acted as shrapnel.

Owl-30 groaned as she stood shakily to her feet. A lull in the battle allowed her to regain her bearings. She limped to the base of the tree and braced her back gingerly against it. Turtle-23 landed next to her, he didn't appear to be tired at all, minor scratches adorned his armor and hands but that was it.

"you good?" she nodded in between heavy breaths.

"ya just" she huffed "I'm not really used to this." And turtle-23 seemed to nod in understanding Otter-5 landed by them supporting an injured robin-28 who was gingerly using her left side.

"has anyone seen Tiger?" no one got to reply before tiger-32 burrowed his way up from underground.

"what's up bitches." Despite being outnumbered and the sand shinobi beginning to regroup tiger-32 didn't seem to be bothered much by the situation, if at all.

Lion-22 flickered into their position, stumbling on the landing, he almost crashed on his face were it not for turtle-23 catching him. His arm was bleeding heavily, and his mask was gone revealing his heavily bearded and bruised face. "we've got maybe twenty seconds before they're back at us." Otter-5 didn't admonish him for improper terminology as he seemed to contemplate their next course of action.

"the objective was to get to the base secure intel and destroy what we couldn't take. Were at the base." He tapped the tree "so, Owl, Robin, and Lion go secure intel. Me turtle and tiger will hold the front door for as long as we can before breaking off if you can't make it escape, no heroics for this one." Even with a mask on, he gave them a look that told them they would not question the orders, he withdrew his tanto out "you all know what to do, move!"

Owl-30 climbed the tree towards were turtle-23 had pointed out the entrance to the base was wind smashed against the bark sending splinters and chips of wood whipping around her. Shouts of battle were ongoing below her. She looked down and saw otter-5 leap onto the shoulders of a sand jonin while taking of the head of a chunin on his way up. He planted an explosive on the jonin's face and jumped off towards another enemy.

Another wind technique smacked the tree. angrily attempting to rip her of off her climb. Her fingers bled from the splinters and her back was beginning to ache again as the healing chakra wore off from the bandages she had gotten earlier. Robin-28 didn't look much better than her self her left leg seemed unable to take much weight, making the climb that much harder.

The top of the tree popped and lion-22, who had climbed up much faster then robin-28 or owl-30, dropped into the hollowed-out tree. The sounds of combat from within the tree mixed with the sounds coming from the outside. When owl-30 finally dropped into the tree lion-22 was already leaning heavily against the wall self-tourniqueting his left arm as it bleeds heavily.

"owl finds anything important I'll" he grunted as he pulled it tight "watch for anyone else." She nodded and with shaking hands began to tear through the room up turning desks and drawers taking any papers and notes that she could find. The tree shook and groaned. It listed to the side and owl-30 found her self-standing at an angle.

"we better get moving." She moved over to lion-22 who had taken a blood pill. He propped himself up testing the use of his bandaged right leg. He waved off her attempt to help him move.

"you first ill be right behind you." She jumped up towards the hole in the ceiling robin-28 grabbed her hand and pulled her up out of the tree. next lion-22 was pulled up his weight despite his short height made them both struggle for a few tics to lift him with their tired muscles out of the tree. "everyone good?" Robin-28 and owl-30 nodded, "alright let's get to clim-"

There was a flash and a well-oiled kunai buried its self in the back of Robin-28's skull. her body froze unable to accept that its brain had died already, owl-30 didn't even get to react before Robin-28's body slumped as its nervous system went out the body rolled off of the tree and crashed into a few branches on the way down. It hit the sandy ground with a smack bouncing a little before coming to a rest, right in front of otter-5.

Then he turned red.

* * *

Thank you for reading if you liked it leave a review or PM me if you didn't like it leave a review or PM me

this is the first chapter of the war with sand in my notes if have it down for about 6 or 7 chapters. I've also been starting my second project a multi-crossover that starts with the witcher books if you have any tips or ideas that you think may fit just send them my way.

again thanks for reading. :)


	12. Chapter 12

welcome, thanks for clicking on the story. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors.

I don't own Naruto

enjoy!

* * *

Owl-30 huddled down at the base of the now tilting tree, she had mindlessly climbed down along with the rest of her new team shortly after otter-5 had gone berserk. Dirt and blood rained down from the sky as otter-5 tore through the remaining sand forces. Someone crashed down next to her and scrambled to her position, a singed tanned uniform filled her vision before she came face to mask with what would have been a cute sand chunin in her mind. If someone, _probably otter,_ hadn't seared half of his face off. The slits of her mask stared into his light brown eyes and she contemplated ending him right there. Then otter-5, or whatever he…it, was stomped by sending a fresh wave of terror down her bones.

The chunin hugged her close and she did the same huddling further into their shallow hole. Prayers to whatever gods the boy worshiped were screamed into her neck and he leaked tears out of his good eye.

"MAKE IT STOP. MAKE IT STOP. MAKE IT STOP." A shell-shocked jonin screamed into the air before he was pierced by two tails of pure crimson chakra. He was raised into the air then torn in half sending is upper and lower intestines flying into the air.

Owl-30 was grabbed from behind and a terrified scream escaped her, her eyes shut and she and the chunin were dragged underground, their grip on each other to tight to be broken by tiger-32 pulling them into one of his tunnels.

When she opened her eyes, it was dark for a moment before her mask's vision turned a light green and she could see. being underground didn't shield from the tremors, screams and the repugnant chakra leaking into the air.

"are you okay, hurt any were."

"I…I….I…I…I….I…I" she couldn't speak, why couldn't she speak.

"right, your suffering from tailed beast shock." He ducked as the ground above them bent inward, whatever chakra was being used to hold up their tunnel was being put under immense strain as whatever it was up there landed on top of them. "Tailed beast chakra triggers shock in humans not used to it, you're probably not gonna be able to talk for a little bit until you become used to it." He sounded too casual for this. Tiger-32 dragged her to a corner in the tunnel then put the chunin next to her seemingly uncaring of the fact that he was an enemy. He stood and owl-30 could see his hands were trembling "we just have to wait it out." There was a loud roar that shook some dirt onto her body. "we just have to wait it out."

* * *

Naruto could see, he couldn't think, he couldn't feel, all he could do was kill. A bug attempted to stab him in the chest hoping to give a chance for his fellow bugs escape. He swatted it away without much thought, feeling its face crunch inward as it was sent flying away.

A group of them were running off towards the smoke in the distance, he was in front of them in a flash his tail bisected a bug while his other tail wrapped around another's throat, the smell of her burning flesh made him hungry. But there was no time for food. He flicked her into her frail friends, tearing her body in half by the sudden movement the top half smacked into a bug's body crushing them both and sending them flying. One charged him its toothpick held high, he let the blade hit just to watch the face of the bug as its useless toothpick shattered against his body. He raked his claws across his body spilling the delicious innards out onto the sandy ground, he licked his lips at the sight, he needed a taste.

The last screaming bug would do, he sent his claw through its chest and pulled the gurgling bug towards him and took a bite out of its neck letting the great taste of iron run through his mouth. He tore the flesh out and swallowed the delectable bight.

Something sent the meal flying and all he could now see was smoke and flying dirt, and the temperature had risen a few degrees too high. The smell of smoke burned his nostrils as he stepped out of the uncomfortable spot. A trembling bug fell to her knees a delightful look ran across her face, her pretty mouth was open, and her nostrils flared, and her eyes were wide. She was backing away from him, a high-pitched noise that hurt his ears was leaking from the pretty bug, he knew just the solution!

 _How many years has it been_ Naruto thought _centuries_ something deep in his mind supplied. He gave her a smile, and the bug only turned to crawl away, it was just the right position, her rear was presented perfectly for penetration all he needed to do was get rid of those terrible human clothes, her retreat was a tad annoying, but all would be well soon. She would be treated by the great Kurama…no, no that's not his name.

He sat back, ignoring the rest of the fleeing people, what was his name? he knew Kurama wasn't it, despite what his mind was telling him. It started with an O that he did know…. or wait was it an N and people just called him O, _nah Kurama is better than O,_ ya, it was… wait no, no it wasn't, that wasn't his name and if it wasn't O then it was N.

"Naruto" bingo there it was. He turned to the helpful person. "Naruto you their buddy?" it was Asahi, what was he doing here.

"of course, I'm here" it clicked and searing pain wracked through his body, as the nine tails gave up on tricks and tried to force its way out of the seal. His breathing relaxed after the nine tails gave up and retreated into its cage, threats of doom and death were whispered into his mind before there was silence.

"Asahi, wh…what happened?" he looked around, screaming sand shinobi ran, some were just sitting unwilling to comprehend the doom that had dropped on them. Others lied screaming on the ground, cries to gods and mothers rose into the air. The few healthy sand shinobi ran around attempting to help the wounded, unwilling to attack the leaf ANBU for fear of being on the receiving end of another jinjuriki attack. "wh…I did…fuck"

Asahi limped over to him draping his cape over his shoulders. Naruto despite the heat of the savannah and the fires raging around them felt the chill of being naked as the cape rested around his shoulders. Asahi ached his way down to sit next to Naruto. "I... I didn't mean to. I just" he threw up strange flesh, pink-red flesh slid out of his throat, he threw up more the metallic of blood overpowered the vile taste of vomit. Asahi placed a hand on his back.

"it's not your fault." Naruto looked at the girl he had been ready to rape, she was still crawling away, her mind never telling her to stand and run, just to move away.

"but I."

"no buts, what happened sucked, but it wasn't you, it was that thing that did this not you"

"how are you so calm? I… I just killed them all, I enjoyed it! It ate someone!" Naruto threw up again.

"in the third war, back when I was just a genin I was deployed to the eastern front against Cloud, and I was, saved? Or at least the last jinjuriki saved me, she might not have seen me or even known I was there, but she saved me, at first, I was terrified, that monster was near me and she was eating a cloud shinobi, bones and all. When she finally came down from the rage hours later she was so distraught she almost killed herself." He took a deep breath in ignoring the stench of death and destruction. "and I knew right there that the monster wasn't her, not the real her at least. She was remorseful, and she hated what she had done. Do you hate what you've done?"

"yes!" Naruto didn't hesitate the screams were enough to make him want to throw up again. "I…I didn't want any of this."

"then it wasn't you, so its not your fault." He sounded so sure of it, all Naruto could do was stare ahead. "look, just stay here we're too injured to move right now we'll help as best we can to let our injuries heal then we can head back."

Naruto looked like he wanted to protest, and Asahi shut him down with a look before he walks off to help treat the dead and wounded.

* * *

Ino felt numb, exhaustion wasn't even present anymore all she could do was move, after crawling out of the hole the ANBU had demasked even though she knew she was breaking some rule out there. The others had done the same, the smell was disgusting and almost made her vomit. Tiger-32 moved over to Robin-28's body and began striping her armor.

"what are you doing!" tiger-32's young princely looking face looked up to her.

"she doesn't need the armor, and otter needs some."

"were not killing him." He stood anger flashed through his body language.

"no! were not killing our squad leader, a loyal Konoha chunin."

"but he just-"

"are you a traitor owl-30?"

"what! No, of course not. But he."

"but he's a jinjuriki, and shit happens, look at him."

Ino glanced at otter-5's pale bloody face. He had puked up whatever he had eaten off the sand jonin, his naked body shivered despite the heat and he cast nervous glances were ever he could, they made eye contact. She turned away quickly, hoping he didn't notice.

"he obviously didn't want to do that, so man the fuck up and start helping!" she jumped at his anger, before scurrying away towards the closest screaming person. Turtle-23 was already there, with two sand jonin as well. The jonin were holding the screaming chunin down, while turtle-23 sawed off his rapidly eroding leg at the thigh with a kunai.

"owl help!" she kneeled next to them.

"what needs to be done?"

"get his other leg, it's going too."

She looked over to the chunin's other leg it was burning bright red and was spreading up the man's thigh.

"now owl!"

"right." She moved around them tying a tourniquet around the man's upper thigh before withdrawing a kunai out from her pouch and put it just underneath the tourniquet and on the bottom of his thigh. Deep breath in and on the exhale, she sawed it up the man's grunting and screaming intensified until she cut through the final piece with a snap. A last-gasp escaped the chunin before he passed out. They all stood and Ino felt the tension start to rise as the sand jonin eyed their bloody kunai's. the tension was cut by a scream from another burning jonin.

* * *

They approached Kaba base many hours later. Explosions resonated in the distance larges flashes of orange and white reflecting off of the savanna night sky, fire dragons were visible for the closer battles and the winds picked up from larger wind techniques. viper team had left the recon base shortly after all immediate wounded had been taken care of. The shock of a jinjuriki attack had started to wear off the sand shinobi and Viper teams injure had stabilized well enough for them to move out. With curt words of thanks and distrust, the two opposing forces abandon the temporary ceasefire and left in different directions.

The long walk back was slow and silent, their injuries well enough to move but not well enough to travel fast. It had cooled off rapidly when night had set in. owl-30 was beyond exhausted, her hair was a mess and she was sure she smelled horrible, and the silence was killing her more than the walk was.

"who were they?" she looked to lion-22

"Hm?"

"the previous Owl-30, otter mentioned my family techniques so I'm guessing they were a part of my clan?" lion-22 scratched his beard as he limped along the path.

"to be honest I don't actually know, otter knew, and I think Robin new, but I only met her in full kit never outside of work, she did have blond hair like yours." He tried to give her a smile, but his swollen face wouldn't let him move, in fact, his words were more mumbles than anything. Owl-30 looked to the ground kicking a stone.

"was she any good?"

"obviously not." Owl-30 wasn't too thrilled about his terrible joke but let it slide, they definitely didn't need an argument now after losing not one but two teammates in one day.

"you did well though." Turtle-23 butted into their conversation, trying to increase their mood.

"ya, that trick with the whole suicide bomber was pretty cool." Tiger-32 joined them

"you saw that."

"it was hard not to." He sounded happy about having watched her blow up almost twenty people, he probably was.

"you still need some work, like endurance and maybe a few up close technique. But you'll do well here." She nodded at lion-22's small assessment.

"thanks!"

They approached the front gate of Kaba base, its actual gate had been blown apart leaving a giant hole where there would have been a gate. A makeshift door was put in place, guarded by roughly five chunin and two jonin, owl-30 could imagine there were more guards he exhausted mind couldn't see but for now, she was ready for a bed. Otter-5 pushed past them assuming his role of squad leader, lion-22 followed to his right acting as their second.

"Identify your selves or we will kill you." Viper team could feel a large build up of chakra ready to unleash whatever techniques the chunin had in their repertoire

"ANBU team one unit A1-P2-S2 codenamed viper team reporting in." otter-5 walked as smartly as his ragged form would allow. They were scrutinized hard, untrusting battle-hardened eyes danced over their disheveled forms, their armor was dented and scratched otter-5's having fallen with Robin-28's body was barely holding onto his body.

"well need some verification for-" there was a tingle on owl-30's arm and an ANBU in a bear mask suddenly existed in front of the gate. Shock registered amongst the guards before they realized that it was a friendly.

"they're good." The ANBU turned away from the guards. Ignoring their disgruntled looks, "follow me ill take you for debrief."

The rest of viper team straightened up walking briskly through the main gate and into the bustling base, chunin and genin ran to and from, moving bodies, rubble or supplies, around the base jonin directed from perches, many were attempting to sleep where they could on rocks, hastily thrown down bedrolls, or just on the plain ground. a few stopped to stare at their awe-inspiring appearance, ANBU like them, were always a good morale booster their disheveled appearance showed hard work being done by the best the village had to offer. Whispers followed them, many of what people thought they did.

They reached a small compound in the middle of the base smaller walls then the main ones out front were reaching just high enough so that a single person wouldn't be able to jump up on top of them. inside the walls, in the rubble of what was once probably the headquarters of the base a white tent had been set up.

Their ANBU guide disappeared after they entered, and otter-5 turned to face the team his pale gaunt face looked even worse than on their walk to the base.

"turtle, owl, tiger, go find a place for us to rest. When you have owl get it set up for a prolonged stay. Tiger go and find us some supplies, turtle come retrieve me and lion after the debrief." Turtle-23 and tiger-32 popped to attention with owl-30 being a tad slower.

"understood."

"Gotcha!"

"okay."

The three members of viper team turned into the crowds of leaf shinobi their disheveled forms, blending into the point that otter-5 could no longer pick them out of the crowd. He turned to lion-22

"what do I tell them?" lion-22 looked contemplative, scratching at his beard a calming habit he'd developed over time.

"that we accomplished the mission with two casualty's one was replaced on the beach the other has yet to be replaced. Fighting entered heavy combat after we were ambushed and leave it at that."

Otter-5 nodded his own mind adding the flair that command would want in a mission like this. They entered the tent, the commander of the entire first division was at the helm of a table in the center of the tent, the regiment commanders were sitting evenly on his right and left, closest to them was a larger man, otter-5 would dare to say fat, dressed in samurai armor, its red markings and gold trims signifying his rank as commander of the fifth samurai division, his own regimental commanders evenly split on either side of the table.

Their eyes all darted to their dirty and broken forms, many of the samurais had distaste written across their features. The portly samurai spun red-faced and angry.

"why do you interrupt this meeting! I thought I told that blasted ANBU to not let anyone in." otter-5 silently wished for his mask as spittle landed on his face and didn't blame the bear-masked ANBU for attempting to piss them off.

"sir ANBU team one unit A1-P2-S2 codenamed viper team reporting from assigned mission designated as a search for, scouting, and destroying a wind country recon outpost in the sunagyu province." The samurai looked ready to yell some more but was cut off by the other commander.

"you're late for your report ANBU, you should have been back hours ago." His tone was disdainful, and his nose was slightly upturned in anger. it seemed the insult of leaving the brief early had affected their command more than it should have. The rest of the regiment commanders aside from two dirty ones seemed just as eager to through in their two cents, otter-5 beat them to iWell

well, sir, we were ambushed while scouting the recon post. Quick thinking by our operatives led to a tactical advantage despite being outnumbered eight to one. Owl-30 secured vital information." He took the time to retrieve the forms from the folds of Robin-28's cape. "detailing troop movements on the enemy and ourselves."

The anger had been forgotten replaced by a cold unfeeling analytical aura, the commanders stood and poured over the new information being presented to them.

"leave us. We have important work to do." Otter-5 and lion-22 were very happy to get out of the stuffy tent. Turtle-23 was waiting for them in just outside the tent.

"looked like fun in there." Turtle-23 cocked his head to the right showing his amusement. otter-5 just ignored him and lion-22 grunted in agreement.

"loads of fun." They made their way out of the compound dodging chunin and genin that were still running around doing vital repairs and preparation for any type of counter-attack. There were shouts on the wall as a small scouting team of sand shinobi was spotted.

When they arrived at the small room that viper team had procured owl-30 was tiredly flinging a chair into a corner, it landed in a heap on three other chairs and a small table that looked like they as well had been thrown into the corner. It didn't take much longer after they arrived for tiger-32 to show up fresh scrolls stacked in his hands.

"I got us new weapons armor and masks, along with a few blankets." He passed the new supplies out stored in scrolls, and they didn't hesitate to begin changing, fresh clothes increasing their morale only slightly, the blankets were laid out evenly before they all turned in for a long sleep.

* * *

Ino was kicked awake, she could barely open her eyes to glare at the horrendous person that had dared to wake her up. She tried to cuddle back into her pillow which just happened to be otter-5, only to be kicked awake again, the numbness of sleep wore off and her body racked with pain from the soreness of the previous day, she groaned in pain.

"I'm up" she moaned out, there was another kick "I'm fucking up" her eyes popped open fully, Ino ignored the burn to close them again, to glare at tiger-32's smiling face.

"morning sunshine! have a nice two-day nap?" she disentangled her self from otter-5 and removed turtle-23's arms that had been wrapped around her too.

"two days?" she stood and stretched feeling sore and hurt in all kinds of places.

"well close to two days, more like a day and a half, but who's really counting." He tossed her a small sack, she almost dropped it, as she continued to blink away the drowsiness.

"what's this?" the bag smelled horrible.

"lunch!" he moved to where she had been laying down "lion's looking for you as well, said something about needing you and otter for an interrogation or something, I don't know, but he's by the new chow hall."

"why didn't you wake up otter too."

"cus I didn't wanna wake up a sleeping jinjuriki."

"asshole!" he just flicked her off as he turned on his side to get more comfortable.

Ino sighed as she prodded otter-5 with he foot hoping he didn't rampage.

"huh, what." He popped up in a defensive position, ready to fight off whoever woke him up. Ino flinched away to the other side of the room, which wasn't all that far, but the distance made her feel better. "what's going on?" he didn't look tired as he relaxed, making Ino jealous as she was still fighting the urge to go back to sleep.

"lion wants our help with an interrogation, here." She held out the bag. He yawned as he took it betraying his alert look, he took a whiff of the bag.

"the fuck is this?" he looked like he was gonna puke.

"lunch!" he gave her a blank look before he dropped it on the floor.

"we're getting real food before we go to Lion." She nodded, and they left the room.

The base was less chaotic than before, less chunin and genin ran around, most were taking to the tradition of sleep when you can and move when you're told. Quite chatter filled the air along with the distant explosions of the front-line battles. The chow hall, when they arrived, was full, eyes darted towards their masked faces, as they cut the lines to receive food.

"Hey, you can't just cut like that!" otter-5 turned his face towards the chunin that had tried to rebuke them, they couldn't see his face, or read his body language behind his brand-new cape, but the mask was enough to make the disgruntled chunin think twice before saying anything else.

Whispers followed them from the food line all the way to a table that was vacated as soon as they sat down. Despite their morale-boosting appearance and the acceptance that the ANBU were the best the leaf shinobi had to offer, many in their ranks were terrified of the ANBU, they were what came if you said the wrong shit to the right person, doubters in the cause and wannabe traitors were always disappeared by the ANBU, and they had a nasty habit of pulling injuring pranks on anyone who felt the need to mess with them.

After eating their galley meal, otter-5 and owl-30 made their way-out chow hall to find lion-22 waiting for them just outside, a large area had seemingly been declared a no-go zone around him.

"have a good meal?" he asked

"as good as a chow hall can get," Otter-5 answered. They followed lion-22 into a secluded area of the base, only jonin were here now most were casual about them, tight greetings and nods were sent their way as they move through the sector of the base.

"the prisoner was captured last night on the front lines." Lion-22 paused to open a door being guarded by two other ANBU, all three of their seals flared before dying down, allowing them to enter the makeshift prison. "he was transported back here, for questioning. Intel declared him a high priority prisoner, and they couldn't break him with conventional means, which means they need owl-30 and her techniques." Shouts and screams echoed around them as the few prisoners that the leaf had taken were introduced to the intelligence division.

"do we know who it is?"

"some high ranking jonin named Yura."

* * *

thank you for reading, if you enjoyed, please review or pm me. if you didn't enjoy review or send a pm


	13. Chapter 13

I apologize for bad grammar or spelling errors.

thank you for reading.

I don't own Naruto

* * *

 _Why is it so dark?_ She was standing in nothingness; empty black space was all she could see. _its not sposed to be dark…. what's not sposed to be dark?_ Ino contemplated the question, thinking about why she was in this dark place. Then, her chest hurt and light exploded around her.

"owl!...owl wake up!" she blinked away the darkness, her mask was off, and she was lying on the ground.

"w...what happened?" otter-5 quit performing a sternal rub and stood.

"you passed out right after you went into the prisoner's mind. Is that normal?"

"n..no it's not, I…I don't remember ever going in."

"you don't remember anything?" a few flashes a meeting with a red-haired boy, Gaara as a small child and his capture.

"only small flashes, like he has no recent memories…or long-term ones. It's like their sealed away or something." Otter-5 gave a sigh.

"Alright, I'll handle the report you go get yourself checked out, lion go get some rest."

They nodded in understanding before departing, leaving otter-5 five alone with the gagged and glaring prisoner, he gave him a glance and left him tied to the chair. Outside the chamber they had been in, the small brig that contained the prisoners was filling up sand genin and chunin at an alarming rate, many were dirty and disheveled, and most were injured in some way. Spiteful glares followed him as he passed their cramped quarters towards the exit.

When he finally arrived at the still makeshift command center, it was bustling with activity, samurai divisions had arrived, with all the pomp and circumstance that came with it. Chunin stood ramrod straight at attention, waiting for whatever command personnel to arrive. Jonin barked orders and corrected people. He ignored them, and they attempted to ignore him as he made his way to the command center.

Within the command compound, the general's station had been moved to the right side, to make room for an intelligence team to set up their own center on the left, otter-5 entered the intelligence tent and was immediately handed a piece of paper by a haggard looking Jonin.

"fill this out for your report." He drawled, looking both alert and distracted at the same time. "if it's a complaint, we do not take those at this time."

Otter-5 looked at the paper in his hands it was an after-action report paper, not what he needed.

"I'm here about a prisoner interrogation." The Jonin looked at him tiredly and sighed. He reached across from his table towards a large stack of paper, otter-5 lost all morale when instead of grabbing a single sheet or a small packet, the Jonin grabbed the whole stack. The dropped it on the desk in front of otter-5.

"have fun!"

* * *

It was hours later when otter-5 got out of the intelligence center. The ceremonial guards had departed by the time he left, and the sun was on its last legs for the day, an angry sigh left him as he made his way back towards the room viper team was staying in.

"otter!" he almost ignored the shout, wanting nothing more to go back to sleep, with regret in his mind he turned and looked at who had shouted his codename. The Jonin in charge of the fifth regiment was running up to him, the man was tall, taller than even lion. A nasty new scar adorned his somewhat young face, cutting its way across his right cheek up to his ear.

"what's up, sir." He gave a nod in approval, despite not learning the jonin's name he didn't mind the new commander. His lack of experience was made up for by his charisma and his natural tactical commanding abilities.

"I've been looking everywhere for you! Thought you were dead on the beach, it's good to see you alive."

"thanks, sir, same to you."

"thanks, anyway the reason I've been looking for you is we're shipping out in…well we were already sposed to but we couldn't find you guys, so we had to wait." The Jonin looked a tad annoyed, "but that's fine it gave the gents some good time to recuperate."

"I guess I should have mentioned we got a mission, right after the landing, that's my fault. When do we leave."

"tomorrow, I hope you guys are ready, we can't put it off anymore." Otte-5 nodded in understanding, the Jonin pulled out a map and handed it to him, "this is our AO, it's the northeastern trench near the chichi woods." Otter-5 looked at the map, two opposing trench lines had been drawn, spreading back towards whatever supply train they could touch, detailed information of enemy troops and locations had been drawn on one side, their own side was surprisingly blank. "it's blank so that they don't get any information, should it fall into the wrong hands." Otter-5 grunted in acknowledgment, he studied the map, memorizing every detail as best he could.

"do we have any operations planned yet sir?" the man shook his head.

"nah, I don't want to come with a premade plan for a place I've never seen."

"your gonna want us to do recon."

"yep! Now I have to run, got a final brief before we leave, do you need anything before we go?" otter-5 thought for a moment.

"can I get a few uniforms?"

* * *

The sun had set and stars twinkled in the sky when Naruto entered viper teams lodgings, Yuuto, Akio, and Asahi were playing cards, Ino was huddled in a corner reading an ANBU guideline and protocol book someone had given her.

"how'd the report go" Asahi forgot the cards to look at him. Naruto just grunted and plopped himself down on the floor his back against a wall. Akio snorted, as he grabbed the shuriken they were using as chips.

"sounded like a blast." The cards were reshuffled, and they offered him a spot.

"we're gonna have to put a hold on that. Ino come here." Viper team cleared the table and Naruto laid out the map of their AO, "this is where we're being deployed, its right outside the chichi forest, so we'll have a pretty decent advantage against sand forces." They poured over the map eagerness radiated off Akio, Yuuto maintained that Hyuga calm, Asahi stroked his beard, and Ino looked nervous.

"how are we getting there?"

"we're traveling up with fifth regiment, under disguise, which we'll be maintaining for an undetermined amount of time." He pulled out scrolls with uniforms. "me and Ino will be chunin in second platoon second squad, you three will be Jonin in first and fourth platoon, first and second squad." He pulled out another paper, "this is our approved story we tell anyone that questions us, and a list of everyone in fifth regiment that knows."

The next day they marched out, the three hundred men and women of fifth regiment somberly left Kaba base. Ino fiddled with her new chunin vest, its weight felt much more uncomfortable than the ANBU armor she'd been wearing for the past few days. Naruto, she had just learned his name when he introduced themselves to their new squad, walked slightly in front of her. His own chunin vest looked just as unused as hers.

"so uhhhh Ino, who's the cutie you brought with us?" one of her temporary squamates, a chunin her age named Rei Fukui questioned, her bright green eyes and innocent face, was a little too close for Ino's liking.

"Naruto?"

"No, the other blond-haired blue-eyed hottie, that came with you. Of course, Naruto!"

"oh uh, I don't think he'll be interested." The girl's mouth twisted off to her left in contemplation before her eyes narrowed in understanding.

"I see how it is…. you already claimed him! You move fast, musta known him before getting deployed?"

"Wha... what, no. we were teammates before this but there's nothing going on." Ino didn't let a blush form on her face.

"ahh, so there's another back home then."

Ino thought for a moment, "no, at least I don't think so." Rei gave her a blank look.

"so, he's single!" Ino nodded slowly. "well I'm gonna try, wish me luck!" she left before Ino could say anything. Her own romantic interests had been shattered with sakura's death, the realization that she could…would die if she didn't straighten up as a kunoichi had reduced many, if not all of her thoughts about dating.

"you'll have to forgive Rei, she doesn't have much of a filter." One of the other chunin in the squad came next to her, Ino could see, when Rei got Naruto to blush and smile, about something she had said. She turned to the older chunin next to her. "Hansuke Hayashi" he stuck his hand out his darker skin stood out in a large contrast when compared to her pale skin.

"Ino Yamanaka" recognition flashed through his face.

"weren't you a genin in first regiment like, three days ago?" Ino almost stumbled,

" ya I was, but I got a battlefield promotion right after the beach."

Their conversation was halted when the column halted, the carts groaned in protest at the sudden stop, beyond the formation, Ino could spot the beginnings of chichi woods. The forest was dark as soon as it started, massive umbrella thorn trees shadowed the ground beneath them, Senegal gum trees filtered in between them, swaths of abal shrubs made the forest floor dull green in color. Were it not for the sounds of combat off in the distance it would have been dead silent.

"second squad form up!" the chunin squad leader named Hitoshi shouted out, similar shouts were being made as chunin and genin were rallied for various formations. The other people in the squad, equaling five chunin and five genin gathered in a small semicircle.

"Alright, guys were about to hit the support line in the trenches after that second platoon is moving up to the front lines for a few days along with first platoon. So get your gear and get ready to move out!"

"where's your gear?" Hansuke tried to sound smooth but his nerves betrayed him. Ino rolled the left sleeve of her uniform up, revealing a seal tattooed on her forearm arm, courtesy of Naruto.

"it's better than carrying the heavy pack around all day." It was also more secure for the more classified information that was on her person.

"damn that's smart," he looked even more nervous.

"you all right?" he looked ready to throw up.

"he's fine" Rei walked up to them her own bag was smaller, containing a small hoard of scrolls. "the big baby's just never seen combat."

"I have too!"

"the one kunai you blocked on the beach doesn't count." Ino was confused.

"wait, how have you never seen combat?" she questioned, Hansuke blushed and looked down in embarrassment. Rei's eyes sparkled with amusement.

"I was a desk jockey before this, got an automatic promotion when I joined the research department."

"and" Rei cut in "we were in the third wave on the beach so the guys and gals of first and second wave had cleared it already, they had practically taken the base by the time we got there." She huffed in annoyance, "it would have been so much fun!"

"it really wasn't." Ino supplied her as they left the carts and moved towards the trenches.

"you lucky bitch, you were in first and second wave!" Ino nodded

"ya" the screams echoed in her mind "I was, my boat got blown up, early I don't really know if anyone survived, I just kinda ran as far up as I could before I got hurt myself." The scars on her back ached a little.

Second squad made their way through the trenches dodging barricades and injured as the moved closer towards the front lines, the closer they got the lest injured there were, it became mostly downtrodden men and women, the volunteer army, made up of civilians that attended a short combat camp, ran around tending to kunai launchers. Samurai and shinobi stood watch eyes darting around looking for any infiltrators. When they finally arrived at the front trench, it was under fire.

Naruto ducked against the wall of the front trench, Ino stacked behind him, shouts filtered into the air, both commands and screams of the dying.

"this is our spot!" Hitoshi yelled out, second squad dropped their packs around them dodging more kunai and shuriken as they whizzed over their head, "Naruto you're with me, we're gonna go check in and get orders!" he nodded, and they set off back towards trench command.

They arrived at the command post as turnover was being finished. "good luck Isao, your gonna need it." Isao the commander of fifth regiment turned to them after dropping a salute towards the commander he was relieving. Various squad leaders and platoon commanders filtered into the command center awaiting instructions, Isao took a long look at them and a deep breath.

"we'll hold here, for now, return any fire that comes our way, but no charges. Find Viper team, our ANBU squad, and have them perform recon on the enemy line, we'll see how it goes from there, dismissed!"

* * *

Ino's ANBU seal burned with a summoning from Naruto, there was a temporary lull in the battle both sides had stopped firing, temporarily. The few genin of their squad and Hansuke looked a tad shaken, the realism of the fight had just set in.

"I gotta go take a leak." She left before anyone could say anything, and proceeded towards viper teams pre-determined rendezvous. When she arrived Asahi was already waiting, Akio and Yuuto arrived shortly after, and Naruto arrived last.

"we've got a recon mission to the other lines, the commander wants good intel across multiple locations. me and Ino will take the eastern edge of the woods, you three will take the western edge of the wood's move inward and gather intel. We'll meet up in the center and come back, shouldn't be more than a day."

Akio dug a small hole big enough for them to change into their ANBU gear via seal without anyone noticing. Viper team departed the trenches without anyone noticing.

Without the sounds of combat, the forest was eerily silent, birds did not sing, and insects did not chirp. Otter-5 and owl-30 made no noise as they moved tree to tree, the ground below them was littered with discarded weapons, traps, and bodies in various states of decay. The smell wafted up into the high branches where they were perched and the filter in their masks didn't do much of anything to help.

Otter-5 used his masks ranged mode to view the enemy trench lines, owl-30 laid next to him on the branch drawing as detailed as she could a sketch of the area and the enemy trench.

 _their much more dug in than us_. The trench at the eastern end of the line, was on a steep hill they looked down on the rest of the lines, kunai launchers and canons littered the front poised to fire on anyone below them. Their own trench was dug so that one could crouch or lay prone, terrible fighting positions for any shinobi, the enemy's appeared to have dug their trench deep, men and women ran throughout the dirt walls carrying supplies and orders.

The two ANBU moved inward towards the center of the enemy line drawing detailed maps and taking vital information. Owl-30 drew in the last canon placement in the sector she had named one-forty-two when otter-5 tapped her shoulder.

 _:contact below, I can only see five:_ she turned off the ranged mode to peak her head off of the branch they were laying on, a small team of samurai where nosily roaming the ground beneath them, their distinct wind country accents made it hard for her to understand them.

 _:do we engage:_ she questioned. Otter-5 shook his head negatively.

 _:it's a trap, they're sposed to draw us in to alert a shinobi team somewhere in the area, that's who we have to watch out for:_ she nodded, and they slid across the branch slowly to not attract attention.

 _:Viper-2 this is Viper-1:_

 _:Viper-1 this is Viper-2 standing by:_

 _:be aware enemy hunter teams roaming the AO, samurai acting as diversions, how copy:_

 _:I copy viper-1, we'll keep a lookout:_

They reached the trunk and used kunai to quietly create handholds, not using chakra for fear of a sensor being around. the samurai had moved on and they waited, fifty tics later and the tree gave a light groan on the branch they had been laying on, their capes blended in with the environment disguising them as tree bark, as the sand shinobi followed the samurai at a fair distance. Otter-5 didn't flinch as a shinobi put his hand up next to his face, and casually leaned against the tree.

"man, why do we gotta do this, we're always getting fuck like this!" the man complained.

"quite you idiot, you're gonna get us killed!" this voice was female.

"Oh, come on the leaf are too pussy to attack us here they've been here for days and haven't done anything."

"I said be qui-" they paused as shouts from the samurai flared up then clangs of weapons started as well. "go, go, go!" they leaped, abandoning silence, four sets of feet filtered off towards the fighting. Otter-5 and owl-30 wasted no time trailing them, the four sand chunin was too focused on getting to the samurai to notice the two ANBU behind them.

Otter-5 withdrew a magnetic ended wire and wiped it out towards the lead chunin. It wrapped around his throat and otter-5 dropped to the ground, wrapping part of it around a tree branch, leaving chunin hanging and kicking in the air as he struggled to breathe. Simultaneously owl-30 launched a barrage of kunai at the now very startled shinobi. Two managed to deflect and one took a kunai to the shoulder, trapped in an L formation and distracted by owl-30 two chunin never saw the wind bullet that shredded them apart from below, their body parts rained on the area. The last remaining chunin the one who had taken a kunai to the shoulder dropped to his knees.

"please don't kill me!" tears leaked out of his eyes and snot dripped out of his nose. "please I beg you!" owl-30 hesitated, there was a wet gurgling noise behind her, the chunin that had been hanged managed to free himself, and tried to stab her in the back, otter-5 had surprised him by spearing a tanto through his throat. The chunin in front of her jumped up.

"fuck you bitch." She didn't hesitate to duck under his wild swing and slip a kunai under his ribs and into his diaphragm. The chunin dropped to the forest floor with a thud and a crack. The sounds of combat had stopped in the distance, the eerie silence settled on the forest again.

 _:you good:_

 _:ya:_ owl-30 lied _:I'm good, you:_

 _:I'm okay, we need to move on before more come this way:_

Five hundred tics later they reconnected with the rest of Viper team, they gathered on the top of a tree to go over their collective intelligence.

 _:what you got for me lion:_

 _:heavy enemy activity near here:_ lion-22 pointed to a map they had drawn up : _I'm guessing an attack is coming soon:_ otter-5 nodded.

 _:I noticed the same on our side, anyone got any week points:_

 _:here:_ owl-30 pointed to sector one-forty-two _:it looked slightly weaker than the surrounding lines, and it didn't look like the obvious weak point that sector one-twenty-eight was:_

 _:good spot, lets head back towards command try and get this intel properly analyzed:_

They were halfway back when tiger-32 shouted

"GET DOWN!" they dropped to the forest floor as the area around them erupted with explosions, they spread forward towards their line. There was a loud war cry behind them as the wind country forces charged.

"fuck!" otter-5 deflected a stray kunai away, "everyone get back to the trench well hold them there."

They sprinted, ignoring stealth as they bobbed and weaved through the trees, bushes, and traps on the ground. Kunai started raining on them from their front, right as the first trench was visible.

"friendlies, friendlies!" the kunai stopped brief enough for them to roll into the first trench. Otter-5 crouched low and came face to face with a very startled genin.

"get everyone ready, were about to come under attack!"

"wh…what!"

"sound the alarm dipshit the enemy is coming this way!" the genin ran off shouting about an attack, people around them popped up from their positions, the sight of five ANBU running back towards their lines sending their adrenalin pumping. Otter-5 looked out back towards the forest, the shrubs on the forest floor were shaking as samurai charged forward, the trees groaned and vibrated with the weight of the shinobi rushing the fire country trenches.

Explosions went off two hundred meters out as the front of the enemy charge ran into their traps. There was a great clanking noise next to otter-5 and the kunai launchers opened fire, the stationary canons launched their iron rounds towards the enemy front ripping bodies apart at the seams. For a moment there was pure silence then the encroaching army smashed into the front line.

Viper team was scattered along the battle line. tiger-32 was popping in and out of holes in the ground dragging unfortunate samurai and shinobi into his domain. Owl-30 detonated every explosive she could sending body parts flying. Turtle-23 delivered devastating blows with his palms, shinobi, and samurai dropped to the ground without a sound, as he precisely stopped organs from working. Lion-22 rained death and destruction with fire techniques, incinerating people and sending their ash high into the sky.

otter-5 planted his feet into the ground and drew on his chakra, spinning and sharpening it against its self. the wind chakra raged inside ready to be unleashed, it sought to escape as he created more pressure, tiny cuts appeared all along his arms, then with a great breath he released it. The overcharged air bullet demolished the front wall of the trench and shook the earth, dirt and bodies went flying, it tore a hole through the enemy line shredding shinobi and samurai, the lucky few on the outside were knocked over or sent flying in the air.

Otter-5 didn't have time to recuperate from releasing the attack before the sand shinobi saw the biggest target, he engaged a Jonin in swordplay, dodging and flipping around with his smaller tanto he spun around a sand chunin, using him as a meat shield to intercept a poor stab, he decapitated both. A kunai kissed his shoulder, he grabbed the hand that it was attached to and dropped low bringing the body forward into his shoulder and spun, flinging the chunin into a crowd of fighting people.

Owl-30 scrambled to the ground after another explosion went off, this one was not hers. A smoking body landed on top of her, then a foot stepped on her hand, a quick look at the boot indicated it was a wind country samurai. She tugged on it with all her strength and he fell his scorched armor cracking on the ground, he shouted out as she drove a kunai into the soft sides of his armor. She crawled forward bodies were stacking up building a pile that many had taken to fighting on, she avoided it like the plague, she got on the far side of the pile and pulled out another kunai and wrapped another explosive around it. Tiger-32 landed next to her, his chakra already firing off, a pit formed enveloping twenty or so shinobi and samurai, she tossed the kunai in and released the chakra hold. They were vaporized by the class-2 incendiary explosive.

There was a short blast of a whistle, then more cried up into the sky. Sand shinobi began to flee towards their own trenches, the slower more armored samurai covering their rear.

"HOLD!" leaf Jonin shouted out, preventing angry hotheaded shinobi from charging. The battle came to a stop, and the screams of the dying picked up.

Otter-5 took a moment to collect himself before summoning his team. They appeared out of the chaos, ignoring the cries for help, and otter-5 felt good seeing them all in one piece.

 _:get changed I'll take the intel to command, help where you can if anyone's hurt let me know:_ they nodded and vanished back into the chaos. He cut his way through the trenches dodging anyone who got in his way. When he reached the command post it was chaos, someone had managed to push far into the trench, and bombed the command center chunin and Jonin ran around attempting to put out fires.

Isao was sitting by the burning center pouring over paperwork and listening to reports coming in from chunin and Jonin. he perked up when he spotted otter-5.

"your alive! I thought your team was caught in the testing attack."

"we were but we managed. I bought a scouting report." He passed the reports and maps viper team had collected while conducting recon. "we scouted from the eastern edge off the woods to the western edge. Marked all strong and weak points, created a system to tell them all apart."

Isao skimmed through the report, surprise and gratefulness ran across his body language. "you did all this in four hours!"

"yes, sir."

"good work I'll need an official AFA, but this is good for now. Go help were you can, and thanks."

* * *

Naruto returned to second squad shortly after, bodies still littered the area creating an awful smell that almost made him gag. Rei was the first one to greet him.

"Naruto!" she ran up to him and gave him a hug "you're alive, we thought you were dead, Hitoshi said you went to find food then you never came back, but then Ino disappeared, then the attack happened, and she had no idea you where you were when she came back, and I couldn't find you and I thought you were dead and, and, and" she had started crying halfway through, her words practically turning into incoherent babble.

"Hey, hey there's no need to cry, I'm fine see." he gave her a smile, "and there was an attack?"

"that's a shitty joke and you know it!" she released his first ever hug and wiped away the tears. "were where you?"

"well like you said I went to find food, and got roped into a watch, I just managed to make my way back here after the attack." They moved to sit next to the rest of second squad, the support groups had shown up to assist clean-up and medical, allowing the combat teams to rest after the fight.

"we lost Kaiya and Naozumi, two of our genin. Hansuke took a kunai to the leg but he's fine." Ino sat next to them, practically asleep as soon as she sat down. "Hitoshi's off looking for something to do, I think."

"second squad!" Hitoshi returned, "we have a patrol" he was met with groans and complaint's but the eight remaining members of second squad departed to no man's land minutes later.

* * *

Thank you for reading if you enjoyed leave a review or pm me if you didn't enjoy leave a review or pm me.

also if anyone is willing to beta I would be grateful


	14. Chapter 14

this is a tad bit shorter chapter, which I apologize for, but its mostly to show the passage of time and how they do mostly nothing for days on end, a few action scenes but they're not long.

I apologize for any grammar errors, and I do not own Naruto

I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Five months, it had been five months since they arrived at Chichi woods. The once proud forest had been reduced to almost nothing, trees had been cut by wind techniques, the brush had been burned away by fire and explosions. The smell of forest and dirt had been replaced by smoke and death.

Naruto huddled under in one of the manholes they had built along their trench, its valuable shade almost as good as food. Rei used his lap as a pillow, Naruto used her head to write a report, Ino slept next to him with her head rested on his shoulder as she released soft snores. Hansuke stood the watch his well-worn boots were visible just outside of the shade, and Hitoshi had been sent for food.

"there's a breeze," Hansuke muttered.

"there's always a breeze," Naruto replied, the constant use of wind techniques created a fake, but much wanted breeze.

"Nah, this one feels different. I think its gonna rain soon."

"you said that two months ago."

"Ya but this time it's for real, and there were raindrops last time too and you know it!" Hansuke dropped his face under the awning embarrassment and anger on his face.

"just like I know we're getting relived next week." The anger and embarrassment left, and his face filled with hope.

"really?"

"how the fuck am I sposed to know I'm just spitting out crap like you are." The anger returned.

"Fuck you!" Hansuke halfheartedly tossed a small rock at Naruto, who raised his papers and let it hit Rei. She blinked awake, sleep still clung to her like an anchor.

"whzzzat" she yawned and sat up, she wiped the drool off her mouth. "what's up?" Naruto shot her a grin.

"Hansuke threw a rock at you." Hansuke grew red and stammered, Rei whipped the rock at him, his face popped back up and it smacked into his leg.

"ow! shit Rei, I didn't mean to hit you." Another rock slammed into his leg

"that means you were aiming for Naruto!" she paused for a moment to glare at the shuffling boots "or Ino!" Ino just continued to snore, and another rock smacked Hansuke's leg. Naruto folded the papers, careful to not let Rei see. Before shoving them into his pockets.

Hitoshi slid down into their area, Hansuke spun with a kunai at the ready. "crackle!"

"boom." Hitoshi gave the challenge word without hesitation "I've found food!" he pulled a squirming bag out from behind him. Rei looked at it with distaste. Hitoshi plopped the bag on the ground, it squealed and attempted to run. Naruto caught the bag when it ran into his range, a civet stuck its face out of a small hole. Big eyes pleading for release, next to him Rei cooed and reach across to pet it.

* * *

Rei gleefully turned the spit on the fire, watching the demon animal sizzle and pop as it cooked.

"is she alright?" Hansuke questioned, his face was set with nervousness.

"it only bit her once, it's not that bad." Naruto stood their watch, facing out towards the enemy lines.

"I don't think he means the bite."

"foods up!" Ino snorted awake. Rei shoved a piece of meat into their face's. she handed Naruto his.

"welcome back Ino! Have a nice trip." Hitoshi tried to shake her more awake, all he got in return was a tired glare.

"What'd I miss?" she picked up the meat that had been tossed on her lap and bit into it.

"nothing major up here." Came Naruto's reply.

"Rei got bit by a civet and murdered it."

"it's not murder if we were already gonna eat it!" Ino ignored their further argument over nothing, choosing to crouch out of the hole to stand next to Naruto and pretend to stretch she wiggled her body and flexed her arms and legs, all a secret code for the ANBU.

 _;report?;_ Naruto eyed her before shifting his weight from one leg to another.

 _;nothing;_ satisfied she got back down under their concealment and rejoined their mindless conversation.

It was thirty minutes later, and Naruto swore, the chunin jumped up and out of their cover ready for anything.

"what's wrong?"

"nothing, it's just raining." And like a switch it began to downfall. They were drenched immediately and the ones not on watch scrambled back into their poorly made cover, already water leaked into their comfort zone.

"Fuck, Hansuke relive Naruto we need him to fix this up." The boy grumbled but obliged and went out into the heavy rain.

Naruto crouched into their hole and began attempting to fix what he could.

"second squad where you at?" the thought of not responding flashed through all their minds, Hansuke even ducked down out of sight. They had no such luck jonin's pants made themselves present with a welt squelch in the newly formed mud, he lifted a small canvas they had laid out for shade. "there ya are, common you've got a patrol."

"we're not on the schedule!" Hitoshi attempted a fight.

"doesn't matter! Command wants star squad on this one." They all groaned, having been the only squad to not lose a single chunin in the past five months, as well as having one of the lowest genin death rates in the regiment, their squad had been nicknamed star squad. "take your genin too."

* * *

Ino hated the 'water resistant' ponchos they were issued, they couldn't compare to the comfort protection and actual resistance the ANBU capes gave her. The poncho was already soaked through, making her skin damp and chilling her to the bone.

The genin walk loudly, as only genin could, in front, nearly out of sight. The silent as can be chunin marched in the rear able to react if necessary. the rain continued to pour down. the remaining scorched trees did little to shield them from it. Naruto didn't even look bothered, Ino thought there was probably some training he had done to prepare for something like this. She was a tad bit better off, the constant uncomfortableness of running ANBU operations for five months without break had toughened her up some. The others complained as only soldiers could.

"fuck this shit!" Rei angrily kicked a stick on the ground, it's loud snap depressed by the sound of heavy rain. Ino could barely see her in the rain and they were only ten feet apart. The ground shook with an explosion in the distance, they all dropped to the ground, Ino crawled to Rei.

"Naruto get up here!" there was no sound of footsteps even in the mud and water, as he ghosted past them towards were Hitoshi was.

There was only rain for five minutes then, splashes of feet hitting mud and water. the genin got close to the chunin. Another explosion in the distance. They moved underneath a fallen tree, its trunk large enough to allow the ten-man squad a place to sit and decide their next plan of action. The genin sat to the side looking as miserable as ten and twelve-year-olds could be in a war. Ino and Rei were closer to them huddled for warmth and putting on a face for the genin to look up to. Hansuke had the official watch, not that they weren't looking out themselves, but he stood on top of the tree, scanning for threats. Naruto and Hitoshi came to a conclusion, as another explosion went off.

"we're not going that direction" Hitoshi scanned their faces once they had mustered, "we're gonna move forward from here and recon the enemy line, maybe they're as unused to the rain as we are?" Naruto didn't like it, this was too much like an ANBU patrol for his taste. None of them were ready for that.

When they got close to the line and their point, Rei had almost stepped into the enemy warning seals, Naruto stopped them.

"what's wrong!" Rei yelled into the rain, he held his hand up to silence her, he gestured to Ino tapping two fingers to his temple, she nodded and disappeared into the remains of the trees. He gathered the genin, as silently as he could.

"run loudly towards our trenches, no straight lines." He whispered into their ears they all nodded and took off. Hitoshi looked ready to protest before clangs of metal on metal started up, shouts from the trenches nearby began, and soon kunai and shuriken were whizzing in their general direction. The rain let up to a drizzle, allowing them and their enemy almost full sight. The remaining members of second squad rushed towards were their genin had moved. Pushing through some surviving brush they saw a sand shinobi impale another with his sword.

"two escaped that way" Ino pointed with her new body.

"Naruto get them, Han Rei look for anything on these guys, I'll go get the rest of the genin." Naruto took off past Ino who left to suicide bomb the chunin she had taken over; his boots made no noise when he ran towards the last of the wind patrol. There was a scream, his body moved faster, he leaped high, right as he neared the scream two kunai buried themselves in the chest of a surprised sand jonin, he landed next to a chunin, followed the momentum of the jump into a roll underneath a stab from the chunin and sliced high with his tanto cutting through the head of the chunin spilling their half of their brains out on to the ground. He stood and sheathed his tanto.

There was a squeal of pain behind him, his tanto was back out in a flash as he spun, more squeals. Underneath his foot was a lower intestine, attached to it was the upper torso of one of their genin, Sora if he remembered. She cried when he stepped off her intestine.

"please help!" blood bubbled out of her mouth and popped. "p..ple..please mommy, ple-" more blood came out of her mouth, Naruto knelt down and held her. She coughed once more then stilled. Her bright blue eyes stared forward in death, Naruto had a moment to think before he jumped back as shuriken embedded themselves in the dead body, he flashed his tanto up and prepared for a fight.

* * *

It continued to rain for days, their trench was partially flooded, and muddy. Naruto stood to watch while his squad slept. The rain continued to drench the ground washing away ash and blood. A shiver of cold ran down his back.

"Naruto!" he cast a look out of his peripherals, Asahi was walking up to him looking scraggly as ever and a massive grin visible through his beard, Naruto traced a new scar going down the side of his neck into his clothes.

"Asahi, what's up?" he accepted a handshake.

"just escorting the new blood to where they're sposed to go. Got one for you." He pointed at one of the many genin and chunin following him, a girl slightly younger than himself stepped forward she was carrying an enormous pack that looked larger than she was her brown hair and brown eyes looked excited and hopeful. "this is uhhhh, Yoshiko, Yoshiko Abe, she just graduated from lady Tsunade's field medical training school."

"that's a thing?" he gave a raised eyebrow.

"Apparently, after the start of the war, Tsunade was almost killed by some GRAIN operatives, she went back to leaf for safety, and lord Hokage let her start up a medical program." An explosion went off down the line the new bloods jumped in fright, Naruto yawned. "good luck on your watch!" Asahi sloshed away through the trench followed by the new people, their footsteps an orchestra of muddy stomps.

Yoshiko stood in front of him, brown eyes boring into his skull as if waiting for something. He kicked the cloths covering their hole.

"Hitoshi!" he kicked them again "got a boot here for you." There was a groan followed by a few other curses before Hitoshi's tired face stuck its self out in the rain.

"huh?"

"got a new genin to replace Sora, you know the one we lost two days ago." Hitoshi scowled, not at the loss but at having to come out in the rain. He grunted as he stood up and stretched. the rain soaking him through as soon as he left the cover of their hole.

"Shut the fucking door!" he quickly covered the hole not wanting to piss Rei off any further.

"right then, Naruto your good, I'll take watch after I take her to the other genin." Hitoshi didn't even look at the new genin before walking off towards where second squads genin had holed up. Naruto ducked into the hole letting the shuriken fly past his ear when rain leaked through and hit Rei. She squealed when he dropped his wet cloak on her.

"that wasn't funny Naruto I was having a nice dream!" he grinned as he stripped out of the wet clothes and tossed them into a small pile near the 'door'.

"really. What about?" she grinned as she gave him a once over with her eyes.

"you and I were on a beach, and I was sucking your dic-" Hansuke coughed, his face red.

"maybe a more appropriate conversation!" he face only turned redder when Rei shot him a sly grin.

"Aww is little Han 'embarrassed', Maybe we can get Ino to get rid of your 'embarrassment'." Ino in her 'sleep' rolled as far away as she could, which was only a couple of inches. Naruto plopped down between Rei and Hansuke. Rei attached to him and dragged him under the various blankets they had commandeered for the cold nights, she traced her freezing hands across his chest. "now if sand surrendered it would be a perfect day!"

* * *

"Ino! You're up for watch." She snapped awake then groggily, crawled on top everyone to get to her clothes, they groaned and cursed until she was dressed and outside, the rain had almost stopped, being nothing more than a light drizzle, were it not for the fact that she could feel it on her skin she would not have seen it in the darkness of night. Her breath fogged into the night sky. Hitoshi greedily scrambled back into their hole eager to sleep again.

She cast a lazy eye across no-man's land, distant lights flickered in and out on the enemy trench, an ever-present sight of the enemy. She yawned and smacked her lips loudly.

"excuse me! I don't think we've met yet!" Ino kicked the genin that sprung up on her into the far wall of the trench there was a muffled grunt as she hit the wall and collapsed to the ground.

"Oh shit!" she knelt down "are you alright, fuck, I'm sorry!" the genin coughed as she stood, a small wheeze left her when she stood up straight.

"ya…'huff'…I'm….okay" the genin continued to hold her chest.

"good, don't sneak up on me…or anyone here unless their an enemy!" the girl nodded.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked out "I didn't mean to I just thought it would be nice for some company during watch." Ino nodded and turned back to her position the genin hesitated before joining her. "I'm Yoshiko Abe! My friends call me Yoshi!" the kick had been seemingly forgotten as Yoshi stuck her hand out for a handshake.

"Ino Yamanaka, I'm not your friend probably never will be." Yoshi frowned.

"why not?

"because you're gonna die or get promoted out of our squad in a week, tops."

"oh" a Yoshiko looked somberly at the ground. "well do you have any tips?"

"don't be stupid, keep your head down, don't volunteer, and shut the fuck up when you're told to." She nodded and rested on the forward part of the trench. Ino watched the lights of the enemy trench flicker for a moment before stilling again.

"get down!" Ino squatted casually and braced herself against the wall, the genin followed after a moment of hesitation. They waited for a moment.

"what are we waiting for?" the girl made to stand Ino grabbed back down. Then there was a great boom, a wind technique tore through their position, carrying dirt and debris. It tore the back part of the trench apart. They both stood as a multitude of fire techniques were launched back in response.

"How'd you know?" wide eyes stared at Ino.

"I'm a badass, duh!" the girl laughed.

* * *

"Get that fucking medic here now!" they were back in the forest, the rain had picked back up, angrily dumping as much water on them as it could. Lightning flashed across the sky illuminating their position. Naruto held one of their genin down as he screamed, Ino tore part of the genin's shirt and used it to gag him into silence. There were pounding feet in the mud, and Yoshiko broke through the brush, Rei covering her movements, with a salvo of shuriken towards the enemy that had attempted to ambush them.

Yoshiko dropped to her knees next to the genin. "I'm here Taichi, you're gonna be okay." Taichi, the genin screamed into the gag, a waved his stumps of legs in the air, and his blast wounds leaked more blood.

"FUCK!" Hansuke's voice rang in the air. The three working on the genin looked at each other.

"Go, me and Yoshi got this!"

Naruto took off. without looking back, towards were Han's voice had been, he leaped up into a tree and pulled on his chakra, he released it when he got a view of Hansuke fighting three sand chunin and a single samurai. The rain seemed to stop around them, the fight paused momentarily, giving Naruto enough time to aim better. The storm upheaval crashed into the enemy, the noise of tons of water hitting the ground drowned out the crunch of their skeleton's shattering under the pressure. he canceled the technique when Han jumped up next to him.

"thanks!" he didn't have time to say anything before the next enemies were on them.

* * *

When the rain finally stopped, it got hot, and it got humid. Bugs started drifting out from were ever they had come from. Providing that ever-constant annoyance, and loss of morale that only bugs can. The humidity made it hard to breath, and the heat sapped their strength. After a GRAIN unit had sabotaged a food supply with poison, watches had been upped to five per squad.

Their rain cloaks, that they had once hated for practically absorbing water was now their best friend, it provided shade, and protection from the burning rays of sunlight. Ino and Rei stood their watch, the chunin had shoved the three man watch onto the genin.

"do you think he likes me?" Ino cast a glance at Rei.

"who?"

"what do you mean who, Naruto of course!" Rei gave a huff and acted offended.

"Oh well, I mean, I know Han likes you."

"well duh, it's not hard to see that." She gave a sigh "but I don't like him, he's too…. I don't know, he's to something, that I just don't enjoy. Now Naruto, there's the real catch."

Ino gave a thought full look. "he doesn't have much of a personality though."

"that's even better" Rei looked excited "I get to fuck one into him!" Ino gave her a dirtier look.

"You're a slut you know that."

"And you're a bitch."

"Hoe."

"Herpes infested cunt!"

Ino laughed. "what!"

"Well," she said drawing out the L "you are what you eat, and nobody wants to be a herpes infested cunt!" they both laughed together. "back to my question though, what do you think?"

Ino thought about it again. "well, he might, but I don't think he wants to right now."

"why not?" Rei looked affronted. Ino only gestured out to the surrounding area.

"and you stink too." Rei snorted.

"you don't smell to good either!" she pointed at Ino while childishly holding her nose.

"I don't think anyone smells good right now."

Then Ino's ANBU seal burned.

* * *

thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. if you did or did not leave a review or pm me


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